Nothing to see here . . . Many years ago , I started this thing to whine about how tired I was . I 'm still tired , and I 'm still whining . But since it 's been two years without any posts , it 's clear it 's not something I can sustain . So I 'm repurposing . I need a way to keep track of my daily activity to report back to my Jenny Craig consultant . If you care , go ahead and subscribe . Otherwise , there won 't be much to see here . Oh dear . Has it really been since September that I posted anything ! Holy cow . Time flies . I didn 't write about our vacation , Jake 's first birthday , how much I 've been at work lately - nothing . So sorry about that . Work I guess has been the primary reason for that . I 'm a project manager , and my boss ( not my most direct one , but the one above him ) has decided that the holidays don 't exist and my project needs to be implemented in early January . Lovely . Not just tons of overtime , but during the month when the after - work time is the tightest anyway ! I 've already lost one holiday , in that I worked the day after Thanksgiving when the office was closed . I 'm scheduled to work again this Sunday . Ug . Last year we had presents , but no tree , and no visits with Santa , or any of the other traditional stuff , because I was still recovering from a c - section , and Rob was recovering from shoulder surgery . I can 't bear for another holiday season to go by without any cheer , so I guess I 'm going to have to really pull out all of the supermom I have in me to get it all done . Speaking of getting it all done , work is calling . . and Jake finally is having his one - year checkup , so I 'm leaving early today as it is . I guess I better get back to it . Oh my god . Rob and Nicole just made the most amazing bread . Silly , Irealize , to get excited over bread . But seriously , this is some greatstuff . They started on it yesterday , because the dough needed to sitovernight or something . Then they baked it this morning . It was acrazy simple recipe - like flour , water and yeast . It wasn ' tsomething that was supposed to rise , and it was baked in a big ol ' casserole dish . So it 's huge , dense , spongy , and with real butter all over it mightpossibly be the best bread I 've ever eaten , even though there is trulynothing to it . Why am I bothering wasting bandwidth on this , you might ask ? Well , because I 'm realizing that we need to cook / eat at home more . Fastfood and restaurant food have not only sucked up way more of ourbudget than it should , but I think it may have killed our taste buds . I 'm beginning to think that our tongues have been coated with so muchgrease and preservatives over the year that we 've completely forgottenhow the simplest of real foods taste . Rob made some pork chops earlier in the week . Nothing major , justseared them in a skillet with some oil and a little bit of someseasoning mix from Penzeys . He 's not a huge fan of pork , but I woofedit down like I hadn 't had a single bite of food in weeks . And maybe Ihadn 't . Our diet largely consists of whatever can be had in adrive - through on the way home - or delivery . Granted , it will suck upmost of what little time we get together as a family in the evenings , with prep time , cook time , and clean - up . But maybe if we all justhang out in the kitchen during that time anyway , we won 't really bemissing out . Epilepsy sucks . Rob 's seizures simply drain the life out of me . I 'm becoming more desensitized to actually watching them , but with every additional one , it 's harder for me to recover emotionally . Today is one of those days . So we started our day at 4 : 30am waking the kids and heading to the ER . He hasn 't missed any medication , which means we needed to determine where his drug levels were . He tested low , which is a good thing in the sense that a medication adjustment should help , but it 's a bad thing in that we don 't know what caused it to fall ( the levels had fallen by half ) . So they advised that he take three doses today , and follow up with his doc on Monday . No additional instructions for tomorrow . Epilepsy sucks . I 'm ready for him to be better , and every time this happens that he 's been at home , I 'm left to ponder the odds of the next one being in a car , or while he 's just carrying Jake around the house . He 's going to have more . There 's no doubt . I just wonder who the next person is who will be hurt , and when . And I feel sick when I realize that I 'm actually * hoping * that it 's * just * him , and no one else . What a weekend . Well , what a week actually . About a week and a half ago , Jake had his 9m well baby visit . All good . 20 # and short . No ear problems , clear for take - off . The next day we get on a plane and head for Boston ( Jake 's first plane ride , and another whole story as far as the weekend details go ) . By the time we get back , we 're exhausted , and Jake has a cold . It 's hard to say if it was just a matter of course , or something he picked up by chewing a toy in the doctors office , or in recycled airplane air , or what . So , about the middle of last week , Jake started having a fever . It started at 103 , and Tylenol could get it to about 101 . When doubled up with Motrin , he finally seemed to be getting some relief . But the nights were still awful . He wasn 't sleeping , and I wasn 't sleeping . So I took him to the doctor on Friday morning , and sure enough , the cold has decided to take up residence in his ears . He was given Amoxycillin ( sp ? ) , which I figured would be fine . He 'd had it once before and didn 't have problems . However , Nicole , Rob and I are all allergic . I should never have let the stuff even come into the house . Here 's where the ER comes in . Friday evening , as I was giving Jake his second dose of the day , I got a drip on my leg , which I wiped off with my finger . I then go to wipe Jake 's face , in that Mom kind of way where you lick the tip of your fingers , and wipe the kids face . BAD MOVE . I could taste the medicine , but didn 't really think anything of it since we 're only talking about some residue - nothing more . I was still rocking him to sleep when I noticed that my palms were itching . By the time I put him down , my rings hurt , and my lips and tongue were tingly . I went downstairs to tell Rob I needed some Benedryl , but I quickly changed my mind , because I could see the rash on my hands spreading up my arm . Fortunately , there is a brand new hospital about 5 minutes from the house . So , I drove myself so that the kids could stay in bed . I got in immediately , and they took only enough info to get me a bracelet . Julie So , have you ever had one of those moments when your child is utterly terrified ( or maybe even hurt ) , and as much as you want to comfort them and be sympathetic , it 's all you can do to control your desire to laugh ? I had one of those this morning . It was almost cartoon - like . I was putting Jake in the car seat , and Nicole usually gets herself into the car and in the booster and can even get her seatbelt on most of the time . But this morning , I guess something else caught her attention . As I was getting Jacob buckled in , I heard Nicole scream . I turned around , and saw her dangling from the bottom of the garage door ! Before I could even get to her , she lost her grip and fell . The door was all the way up by the time she started yelping , so she probably fell a good 6 or 7 feet . The poor little thing had scrapes on the inside of her hand , and was just trembling violently . She was crying and was completely terrified . She landed on her feet , and wasn 't really hurt by the fall , but just hanging there appeared to have scared her almost worse than she 's ever been scared before . But seriously - think about it . The vision of a four year old being pulled up with the garage door , and just hanging there . I didn 't see her on the way up , but I 'm telling you - the brief second that she was hanging there was just hysterical . I know I 'm a terrible mom for thinking this was funny , but on the other hand , I can basically guarantee she won 't ever do that again . Posted by Months ago , I made a vow to myself to not spend any more money on scrapbooking for the rest of the year . I just suck . I couldn 't do it . It 's not because I 'm lacking for supplies - I have plenty . It 's just that I 'm missing the ability ( vision ) to take all of the papers and whatnot and use them to compose a layout that I love . And when I 'm stuck for inspiration , I wind up spending 3 hours on a single page , and I still don 't love it . I always used to use my monthly crop time with my friend ( who used to be a CM consultant ) to get fresh ideas and look at other people 's books and get inspired again . But she gave it up , and now I have no crop - no monthly inspiration to look forward to . So I fixed that problem by joining Club Scrap ! There goes my vow not to spend any more money - I committed to 6 months , at $ 30 / month . Not terrible , but it definitely breaks my vow of no more stuff for the rest of the year . However , here is the good news - I 've discovered in the past few years that the layouts I love most have great color . But again , not something I 'm good at doing myself . But Club Scrap has this " Assembly Line " deal , where they give you instructions for how to assemble your entire kit with no waste . Eureka ! Exactly what I need ! And the best part - I downloaded all of the published instructions for past kits . And even though I don 't have those kits , I have heaps and heaps of paper that I don 't know what to do with . So starting last night , I dug out several 12x12 papers that I 've had for ( no kidding ) nearly a decade . I love them , but I couldn 't figure out how to use them . So I went through the Assembly Line instructions and found layouts using papers with patterns of similar scale , and found coordinating solids , and put together 8 background layouts . I still don 't have photos in mind for any of them , but at least I don 't have the papers sitting there without a clue what to do with them . I went to bed so happy last night that I couldn 't sleep . I think I 'm going to be putting together backgrounds for probably the next month , Julie I swear , I must have just watched Nicole like a hawk when she was a baby . She never fell off of anything higher than her own butt . But now , I 'm just not nearly as cautious . Poor little Jacob has crawled off of our bed twice , and this morning he tried a new trick - stair climbing . I had no idea he knew how to climb stairs . So , of course , I wasn 't watching him , and he fell . Nicole said his feet were on the second step , so he didn 't fall far , but nonetheless he fell . I should have known that once he was pulling up to his feet that stairs weren 't far behind , but I thought it would take just a little longer . He 's been getting up on his knees for about a week , but only up to his feet for a couple of days . But I guess that 's all it takes . So tonight 's after - work project : gates , gates , everywhere . Posted by I have a Starbucks habit . I could probably take a European vacation if I put all of the money I spent on Starbucks in one year in a jar instead . My regular order is a venti black coffee for work , and a tall mocha for the drive ( the coffee is about 1000 degrees , and therefore does me no good on the actual commute ) . It totals $ 4 . 82 . So today I pull up to the window , and they hand me my coffees , and explain that they 're having some trouble with their computer , so the coffee is on them today . WooHoo ! Hopefully the rest of the day will go equally as well . : - ) Posted by Usually , we tell Nicole that after lunch it is naptime . She generally sulks , but goes ahead and walks upstairs and goes to bed . Today however , she decided to do beadwork . I 'm not sure how she progressed from stringing a necklace to sticking a bead up her nose , but then again , there are lots of things about 4year olds that I don 't understand . She came down the steps crying , and presented us with a bloody nose . Usually , this comes from a compulsive picking episode . But she denied that was the case . She 's had bloody noses before , but it 's always been because of picking or being boffed in the nose - never just random . We finally got out of her that she put a bead up there and was trying to get it out . So at this moment , she 's up at the urgent care with Daddy while I hang at home and let Jake finish out his nap . I 'm guessing there will be a bead extraction procedure , and then they will be sent home . But I guess I 'll go hit the shower , in the unlikely event that they can 't get it out and send her to the ER . What a fun way to start a Sunday afternoon . . . . This evening , after I got home from work , my darling four - year - olddaughter informed me that tomorrow , * before * it was wake up time , shewas going to get dressed in her pink Aurora dress , and sneak out ofthe house as quietly as she could , and go to her school . Then she wasgoing to climb over the fence , and wait for Shelby . When Shelby gotthere , they would tiptoe to Shelby 's grandmother 's house and pickflowers . I wasn 't entirely sure what to say . I didn 't want to make a jokeabout it , because if she really did get up and leave the house , itcould be a huge problem , obviously . So I asked her why she would everwant to leave without telling mommy or daddy , because we would be sosad when we couldn 't find her . She then responded that she promisedthat she 'd tell us first , before she left . But that wasn 't anoriginal part of her story . So I told her that if she ever left and * didn 't * tell us , that she would be in big , big trouble . She againpromised that she 'd tell me before she sneaked out of the house . Now , realistically , her bedroom door squeaks , and before that even , she usually goes to the bathroom when she gets up , and the upstairsplumbing runs through one of our bedroom walls . And , if , for somereason , she actually got through those noises without waking me up , she couldn 't get past the alarm system . So she 's not getting muchfurther than the front yard , at best . But I 'm left wondering if I should call Shelby 's parents . I don ' twant to tattle on Shelby , or even accuse her of being a bad influenceon Nicole ( especially since Shelby starts Kindergarten next week andwon 't be spending nearly as much time at the day care as she wasbefore ) . I 'm sure their little adventure plans are harmless . Butclearly Nicole wasn 't the only person involved in this plan , becauseif it were completely up to Nicole , she 'd be going to her owngrandma 's house to pick flowers . I generally cross paths with Shelby 's dad a few times when we ' redropping off the kids - maybe if Nicole is still set on these plansnext week , he and I can have a talk . The last thing I nPosted by This is mostly about Nicole , since all Jake can say is dadadadada . She 's been saying some very sweet things lately . For instance , she 's quite interested in my wardrobe . She gets especially happy when I wear a skirt . Earlier this week , she said , " Thank you , mommy , for wearing that beautiful skirt " . To which I replied " Thank you , Nicole . That was very nice of you to say " . Any time I wear a heel she 'll comment about my beautiful shoes , and she always thanks me if I go so far as to put on a necklace . A few days ago , I used some little clips to pull her bangs back ( I 'm trying to grow them out ) , and I asked her to look in the mirror and see if if looked OK . She said they did , and then posed the question , " Am I gorgeous ? " . I promptly confirmed that she indeed was , gorgeous . She loves to be beautiful , and is quick to point out to others how beautiful she finds something about them . But " gorgeous " is new , just this week . Tonight , she went through the toybox and found a few miscellaneous dress - up items , and a few purses and a headband . She also found one dress - up shoe . She came clip - clopping down the hallway , and showed me all of her purses . I asked her why she was wearing only one shoe . Without hesitation , she very matter - of - factly pointed out , " Well , because I 'm Cinderella " and then went about her business . Unfortunately we ended the night on a sad note , because I cut the back of my leg on a nail , and had her daddy patch it up for me . She 's incredibly sympathetic , that one . As she was holding a tissue on it ( while daddy went to find neosporin ) , she said , in a very weepy voice , " I 'm so sorry , mommy , that you 're hurting " . The poor thing was almost in tears . I assured her that I was really going to be very fine . But knowing her emotional little self , she 'll probably have a bloody nightmare about it . Uh oh . . speaking of bleeding , looks like the bandage wasn 't quite heavy - duty enough . Time to re - dress . Wow , am I tired today . Rob needed to get back to work , but without knowing what his drug levels are on the new drug , there 's no way he was driving . So that meant car pooling . Unfortunately , his job isn 't exactly on route to my job . And the worst part is , we have to get the kids by 6 , which usually requires me to be out the door no later than 5 , because it will take me every bit of an hour to get to them before the day care closes . But now , adding a detour to get Rob first , I have to leave even earlier . So , in order to not have to start cashing in vacation hours , I need to get to work that much earlier to make up the time ( I usually stay until 6 and Rob picks up the kids since his commute is so much shorter , and not as impacted by rush hour ) . So this morning started an hour and a half earlier than normal , and I 'm already wiped clean out . On top of that , Jake has been having some kind of issues where he likes to burst out and scream every couple of hours . We had this problem with him and silent reflux , but after we had a few weeks of prevacid under his belt , he was much better . I hope it 's not the medicine failing . I 'm kind of hoping that it 's teeth or something that will be resolved in a week or two . Because I 'm not getting any sleep ! After about 2 trips upstairs to give him his pacifier , I bring him back down with me . The boy has really outgrown the bassinet , but if he 's going to need a pacifier 4 and 5 times a night , I don 't want to have to get out of bed to give it to him . Anyway , bring on the coffee . It 's going to be one of those days . And the week is still just getting started . : - ( Posted by It seems that , with the exception of the time he broke his shoulder , my husband comes out of his seizures with a new zest for life . It 's usually brief , and then he goes back to being him , but I 'll take what I can get . I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of an RC truck slamming into the drywall and baseboards , and my daughter laughing so loud you could probably hear it outside of the house . I have no idea what possessed Rob to get this truck down out of the closet , but he did . And that truck defined our whole day . For starters , he decided he wanted a new , bigger truck . So we got the kids ready for a trip out and headed to the hobby store . Several hundred dollars later , Rob had a new toy . Of course , this toy didn 't have the batteries charged or anything , but that 's why we packed the original truck with us . From the hobby store , we picked up some sub sandwiches and headed to the park . Jake and I stayed in the safe shade of the pavilion , but Rob and Nicole played with the original truck in an unused baseball field . The truck chased Nicole all over that ball field and stirred up a whole storm of dust . But she didn 't seem to care . She just kept running . I watched , and tried to take a few pictures ( post those later ) , and Jake ate cheerios . It was really a lot of fun . Well , until a bunch of rowdy local kids came and started bugging Rob about the truck . They weren 't dangerous , but they were loud , and the language wasn 't anything we needed Nicole to be exposed to , and they seemed insistent on being wherever we were . So we decided it was time to go home . After a 3 + hour nap , Rob woke Nicole up to have some dinner . But first , the new truck 's batteries were charged , so it needed a test run around the yard . Nicole was glad to help . She ran around the yard so that the truck had something to chase . All in all , it was a very good day . I wish we were in the habit of having more like that . Our holiday was quite busy . It was a mixture of good and bad . We started off by participating in our subdivision parade . It was fun , but I hadn 't really intended on being in it - only taking the kids up the street to watch . But the neighbors were going to be in it , and their little boy had one of those little cars , and Nicole rode with him . So it wound up not being that bad just pulling Jake in the wagon . At the end of the parade route , we get to an empty lot , and the firetruck that led the parade hooked up to a hydrant and gave the kids a massive sprinkler to play in . Unfortunately , it was just too hot to hang out , and certainly too hot to haul both kids all the way back up the hill . So I called Rob to come rescue us . Both kids were pretty worn out just from being in the sun , so we got home , got Nicole some lunch , and then when both kids were napping , we resumed clean - up . That 's where things started to go badly . Rob had another seizure while we were cleaning up the kitchen . I was there , and managed to keep him from getting hurt . Jake was up by this time , and I think he could sense that I wasn 't quite right , because he just started screaming for no reason ( like I needed that on top of an unconscious husband ) . Anyway , I eventually managed to get Rob on the floor and then started working on Jake . Luckily Jake was calmed down by the time Rob woke up ( it usually takes about 30 minutes ) . He didn 't want to go to the hospital , and he didn 't want to cancel the party . So he just rested up until the time the guests were due . I asked my dad to do the cooking , and I asked our friends to be in charge of the fireworks . Rob was extremely wiped out , and wound up being pretty nauseous before the night was over , but the party went on without him , just as he instructed . The kids swam , and played in the back yard ; everyone ate until they were stuffed , and then we all ate home - made ice cream ( courtesy of my grandma ) while we watched the pyrotechnics show . I called in to work today , so I could stay home with him . We haven 't heard back froPosted by Whew . I 've had about all I can take for tonight . The last two days after work has been nothing but rushing around trying to get the house picked up and ready for our annual July 4th bash . And now , with the list not even half marked off , I 'm giving in . I was going to get all of the food prep ready , including getting hamburger patties made and tomatoes and onions sliced . But my eyes just aren 't holding out . I guess most of what 's left can be managed tomorrow . Luckily we have until 4pm to finish up . I think the day will begin with LOTS of coffee . : - ) Realistically , I shouldn 't complain about any paid day off of work . However , I don 't think any holiday setup sucks more than one that falls on a Wednesday . You have no time to prepare , and no time to recover . You spend the first half of the work week looking forward to the day off and trying to figure out what needs to be done in the evenings , and then the last two days tired as hell . How many days until Labor Day again ? I know tomorrow will be a good time . It always is . We fill the little kid pool and put out all of the water toys , and most of the people mill around outside and watch the kids splash around . Then we 'll fire up the grill and everyone will eat entirely too much . Then we 'll have the homemade ice cream that Grandma brought , with some of those sugar wafer cookies . Then Rob and his buddies will haul out a truckload of fireworks , a butane torch , and a fire extinguisher and saunter out to the far edge of the yard like a bunch of ghostbusters . The rest of us will find a comfortable spot near the house and watch while the whole neighborhood puts on a collective show . Some of us will come in early and try to calm sleepy and frightened babies , and others will come in just because they 're bored . But when it 's all over , it will have been another fun - filled holiday . Off to bed . So Saturday , after the party , I parted ways with my kids so that they could spend some time with their grandma . She even offered to keep them two nights , so that we didn 't have to make another trip out on Sunday to go get them , and she 'd bring them back Monday when we were home from work . That was great , because I figured I could spend all day Sunday getting ready for our annual July 4th bash . Now , not only did I spend most of Sunday scrapbooking ( so I didn 't make a bit of progress preparing for the party ) , but now I miss the kids terribly . It was awful . I 'm 8 months behind on my scrapbooking , and gosh durnit I was going to get organized and start getting caught up . But this caused me to spend probably what totaled 6 hours yesterday looking at pictures of the kids , which covered Jake from birth to now , as well as lots of pictures of the two kids playing together . And now I can 't wait until they get home . I still haven 't gotten anything done for the party , and with them back home , I won 't make much progress either . But at least I won 't miss them any more . Posted by This weekend is certainly shaping up to be busy . My niece 's first birthday is next week , and her party is tomorrow . I haven 't even started thinking about a gift , so I guess I 'm going to be spending some time at Target tonight . Weeknight shopping usually requires a quick dinner out , so we 're planning on heading right back out after we get home from work . Tomorrow morning will be swim class as usual , but we 've got quite a bit to do before heading to the birthday party . We need to get the gift wrapped , get some hand - me - downs organized and out to the car , and last , but not least , get the kids packed for an overnight stay at Grandma Sue 's ! WooHoo ! My mom wants to take the kids back to stay at her house after the party . I realize with both parents working full - time , we don 't really see enough of our kids as it is . But the truth is , we don 't always see enough of each other either . Our most meaningful conversations over the past year or more have been over IM while at work . But now we don 't quite know what to do with ourselves . Maybe we 'll catch a movie . But we have a home theater and hundreds of DVDs , so spending the money to get kicked in the back and struggling to hear over noisy teenagers doesn 't usually sound that appealing . There 's always dinner at a less kid - friendly restaurant , but we probably shouldn 't be blowing that kind of money on dinner out either . So who knows . Maybe we 'll find something cool to do , or maybe we 'll just come home and watch a DVD . Either way , we 'll get to spend some time together - just the two of us . Then Sunday will come and we 'll desperately want our children back . LOL . This morning , my darling son discovered gravity - the uncomfortable way . Shame on us as the parents for not realizing that a 4 year old can not be expected to contain a determined seven month old . I know she tried her hardest , but poor little Jake still took a header right off of our bed . Before I go any further - - he 's totally fine . I was in the shower , and Rob had gone to fetch Nicole some breakfast . Nicole kept yelling something , which I didn 't understand because I was in the shower . Usually that causes her to come running closer so she could tell me again . But not this time - she stayed right by the bed . I didn 't know , until I heard a thump and screaming , that she was trying to warn me that she couldn 't hold him much longer . Of course , I jump out of the shower , with shampoo still in my eyes to go pick him up . Good thing he wasn 't hurt , or I would surely have damaged him further the way I quickly scooped him up . But we eventually got him calmed down , and then did a few close observations of his behaviors , and his eyes , and whatnot , and he seemed fine . He must have been a bit shaken up though , because for the first time ever , he got upset when I tried to leave him at day care . Poor little guy . But I called at noon , and he was being his same as usual self . Seems its time to bring the playpen in the bedroom . We need a morning routine containment vessel . LOL . Posted by So , a few weeks ago , I notice Jake looking at one of Nicole 's dolls . I 'm not sure if he was trying to figure out what it was , or why it didn 't move , or what . But I wouldn 't let him have any of them because of the hair . That doll hair would be a snap for him to pull out and get wrapped tight around his fist . Of course , he did not appreciate my concern for his safety , and proceeded to scream . A few days later , I 'm trying to clean up the playroom , and I noticed a pair of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that Nicole got for Christmas one year . She never really had any interest , and after close inspection , I realized these would be great for Jake to have . The yarn hair could probably get yanked out , but still , somehow it seemed safer . And there were no buttons or snaps or glitter or anything that seemed dangerous about the outfits . I showed Andy to Jake . Jake squeeled . Andy is Jake 's new best friend . The first time I ever saw Jake tear out across a room ( as much as one can possibly tear out doing an army crawl , anyway ) , it was to go after Andy . Poor little pudge ball was exhausted when he finally got to Andy , but he sure was happy . These days , Andy sits in Jake 's bed , and waits for Jake to wake up in the morning . This morning , Jake sat up there and talked to Andy for at least 30 minutes before he decided he wanted out of the crib . I like Andy . I think I 'm going to find him very helpful . : - ) There are times when I think that my husband is good for nothing more than keeping the kids alive and well when they 're completely in his care . But there are times , when keeping them alive and well are exactly what make him the greatest dad in the world . From the time Nicole was little , the jobs he volunteered for were , making up the formula and dispensing whatever medicine might be required . He does the same for Jake - and Jake takes prevacid every day , so there 's always medicine to be given . Daddy is also the man who fixes the general boo - boos . He inspects every cut and scrape , and treats it with the appropriate ointment and bandage . This morning , he took it up a notch . He quite possibly saved our son 's life . As I was walking out the door to head to day care , Jake started to cough . It didn 't sound like a gagging cough at first , but I started patting him on the back - but quickly he started turning red and really gagging , and he clearly wasn 't breathing - but he was still trying to cough . I ran in to where Rob was and told him I needed help . Rob completely grabbed Jake and put him on his belly and started hitting his back , but then quickly got him up again and started feeling in his mouth . I then heard Jake breathing , and told Rob he was breathing , but Rob didn 't stop . Seconds later , Rob removed his finger from Jake 's mouth and showed me a sticker - the sparkly foil kind . He had reached as far as he could into Jake 's throat to get it . Jake is fine . This never happened with Nicole , because there were never any remnants of an older child laying around . But I guess we need to start paying more attention . In the meantime , I 've decided that , if all Rob ever does from here on out is keep the kids alive - then that will be fine with me . Posted by I never understood what my mother ( and others of her generation ) meant when she asked if Nicole had " found her voice yet " . That really didn 't make any sense to me . And then , one day , my mother declared that Nicole had finally found her voice . I still didn 't really get it . Sure , Nicole was making noise , but it was little more than coos and jabbering . Jake , however , gives meaning to that expression . He " found his voice " months ago , and had been letting all of us know that he knows that he has a voice ever since then . He doesn 't really cry much - he really just yammers on and on and on such that between he and his sister , there is never ever any quiet . I could have announced Jake 's voice finding months ago , I know . But truth be told , it never really mattered that much . But last night - oh , it mattered . My darling son decided , at around 3am , that he was going to have a party with all of the critters in his crib . He talked , sang , and pounded on his mattress that I can only imagine was something akin to head - banging ( I was hearing all of this over the monitor ) . Finally , around 4am , I decided to try to feed him so that he 'd return to sleep - he 's been consistently eating around 5 : 30 for the past month . I had to wrestle Raggedy Ann away from him ( he 's quite fond of the Raggedy siblings ) , but eventually got him back to sleep . And that didn 't last nearly long enough . By 7am , he was right back to announcing that he was awake , and the party with his crib - mates ensued . Lord am I tired today . We 're idiots . We purchased a new inflatable pool for the kids , and I got a little floaty tube thing for Jake . We decided to leave it filled for a few days , just to give Nicole and opportunity to swim after we all got home this week . And that was fine , but what we failed to do was bring in Jake 's thing . It is , of course , gone . At some point on Monday , we got some winds that were enough to knock over a BBQ pit . So I 'm sure his little thing is completely out of the subdivision by now . We can get him a new one , but what a waste of $ 10 . We just need to get our act together and pay attention . So , it appears that we 'll be going from the Gerber 1st Foods straight to table food . Jake has made it perfectly clear that he has no interest in being in a high chair if there isn 't something there for him to eat . So even though he may have had a container of baby food , he still looks at us eating , with that " hey - where 's mine ? " kind of expression . I 've spent several meals over the past several days trying to find something Jake can eat by himself while the rest of us have our own meals . So far , he 's had bread ( toast , pizza crust , and plain bread ) , cucumbers , peaches , and cheerios . I need to get one of those mesh feeder things - and soon . Our ability to all have dinner together as a family may very well depend on it . Tonight we 're having another first - the first time we 've left Jake with a babysitter that wasn 't a Grandmother . My sister has a step - daughter ( 14yo ) , and apparently she needs to " earn " the right to attend a party later this weekend . So my sister offered up some free babysitting . I think it will be fine . We 're going out to dinner with my sister and her husband , and we made reservations for a place that 's only about 3 miles from the house . The babysitter has a younger sister who 's only a couple of months younger than Nicole , so I don 't doubt her abilities to manage Nicole . And Jake , by himself , probably not a problem . But if she can manage both of them together , she will definitely have accomplished something . Not that it 's impossible - but even the grandmas have trouble managing the bedtime routine . The way I figured we 'd solve that problem though - was just to tell the sitter to make Jake the priority - do whatever she needed to do to get him situated for the night , and if Nicole wound up staying up well past her usual bedtime as a result , then we 'll deal . Anyway , I 'm looking forward to tonight , but I 'm nervous at the same time . Nicole never stayed with a sitter who wasn 't family until she was three . And now , not only am I leaving one that 's much younger , but I 'm leaving two at the same time . I 'm sure we 'll get through it . And hey - if it works out well , then maybe we 'll be able to do this more often . So tonight we decided that we needed a new pool . The one we had was not cleaned out well before the winter , and it was allowed to get nasty . So nasty it wasn 't worth saving ( seriously - the health of our children may have been at risk - LOL ) . Anyway , we decided to go look for one at Target and go to the pizza buffet afterwards . Mmmmmm pizza buffet . . . . . Rob fed Jacob before I got home - just some baby food veggies , but enough that he wouldn 't be hungry and need to be fed at the pizza place . Ha ! The boy made it perfectly clear that he wanted what we were having - teeth or no teeth . We keep trying to explain to him that he has no teeth , but he doesn 't seem to care . So after several grabs at my plate , I went back to the buffet and assembled a plate for him . He sucked on several chunks of cheese garlic bread , turning them back into dough , and then worked on some cucumber slices . ( I really didn 't think he was ready for pepperoni so grabbed what I thought was safest from the salad bar ) . I honestly didn 't think he could do much more than drool on a slice of cucumber , but man was I wrong . He sucked the soft middle part right of out it . He then started to work on some carrots . He gave up on those pretty quickly though - probably because he couldn 't ever get anything off of it that he could swallow . So , I 'm thinking we may be going from Gerber 1st Foods straight to table food . I know you can get little canned veggies that have no salt , so those would probably be good . I should also see about keeping some fresh fruit and veggies around . Even cucumbers . Who knows - maybe he 'll finally cut a tooth on a nice thick cucumber slice . It would probably feel pretty good if it were nice and cold . Nicole is such a picky eater . So is her father . Maybe Jake will be my little eating buddy . Perhaps I 'll finally have an excuse to buy vegetables ! I 've been thinking , and I think that I have a job , just so that I have something to look forward to . Yeah , the paycheck is nice , certainly . And having good insurance and the prospect of a very comfortable retirement is great too . But I really think that the main reason I work is to have to wait to do certain things . Yeah , I can imagine how crazy that must sound . But just now , I was thinking about this weekend . Nicole starts swim lessons again on Saturday ( she took lessons last Spring ) , and I have some shopping I want to do for some new landscape plants . Then , after we 're home and the kids are napping , I 'm going to get the pool out and get it cleaned up and filled , so that the water can be warming up . We have an errand to run later that will take us out to my MIL 's house , so the kids won 't get to swim any more on Saturday most likely . But then that should leave all day on Sunday for us to just chill out at home and play outside . And hopefully I can get my plants planted before suffering heat stroke . What 's really crazy , is that if I were home with the kids every day , I 'd have all the time in the world to do this stuff , but I know me . I wouldn 't . Nicole would be parked in front of the TV all day and I 'd spend most of the day transferring Jake from toy to toy . I think that , because there was always tomorrow , there would never be the incentive to get anything done today . But since I have a 9 - 5 , I know that if I don 't get my plans done on the weekend , I have to wait a whole other week for another shot . And that 's really enough to make me get off my butt and get stuff done . I can 't wait for the weekend ! Maybe I 'll head to Target tonight and see if I can find some little floaty thing for Jake so he can get in the pool with Nicole . : - ) I thought someone once told me that the neverending " why ? " s started at the age of three . Maybe I 'm remembering incorrectly . Because now , at age 4 1 / 2 , Nicole is all about the " why ? " . Occasionally she 'll throw a " how come " in there , but it 's all the same . So anyone with a four year old ( or if you went through this at 3 ) , what the heck is the answer ? I knew this was coming , and I was dreading it . But at the same time , I really thought I would be a brilliant mommy and answer her questions so satisfactorily , that one " why ? " would be sufficient . I was so incredibly wrong . Tonight , I was just tired , and come bedtime , couldn 't answer any more why questions . So I said that the two bedtime stories would have to be from her very small books . Good thing too , because every page ( like , all 8 ) had the endless string of questions . I finally answered " Because that 's what it says in the book " . Brilliant , I know . * smirk * . But my clever answers just aren 't doing the job . So I want to know . What 's the best way anyone has ever answered " why ? " . I 'm looking for the answer to end all . The one that makes the four year old simly say " oh " and roll over and go to sleep . This one will be short . Rob 's done with school ! Yeah ! His class had a little dinner tonight where they handed out all of the graduate certificates for his class . Now we can hopefully enjoy a nice homework - free summer . Have you ever had one of those days / evenings that was just like some kind of oasis in the dry desert of everyday life ? We had one of those last night . We had a guest for the past two nights as he was passing through town , but we didn 't really have any set plans to hang out or go out to dinner or anything . His plans yesterday were to just do some St . Louis sightseeing , and we had no idea when he 'd be back for the evening . So we decided to go pick up an assortment of deli meat and cheese , and a couple of " salad " sides , and that way if he was there , we 'd have sandwiches , and if he wasn 't , but wanted something to eat later , we 'd have something in the fridge . So Rob gets the deli stuff on his way home and I pick up the kids . On the way home , Nicole asks if she can play outside for a while , and I said we needed to have dinner first - then I suggested to her that we could take our sandwiches outside and have a little picnic . When we got home , we saw our neighbors ( with two boys that are close to Nicole and Jacob 's ages ) , and went by to say hi . As we were about to part ways for our separate dinners , the mom ( Amy ) noted that she wasn 't sure what they 'd throw together yet . Then Nicole announced that we were having a picnic . I know that Rob overbuys when it comes to deli stuff , so I told her they were welcome to join us in the backyard . Graham ( the little boy that 's Nicole 's age ) got terribly excited , and Amy said " let me go ask Daddy " . So we went inside , loaded up a laundry basket with all of our sandwich fixin 's and some blankets , and by the time we got back outside , Amy and the boys were standing outside with ice cream and cones , and declared that they had dessert , and that Rich was coming along with some more blankets . The 8 of us just all sat outside and ate and yapped ( well , the two older kids ran around and played after stuffing themselves full of little more than Doritios ) for over two hours . It was wonderful ! It was a little muggy , but it was also windy , so it wasn 't that bad . Andrew ( our guest ) showed up about an hourPosted by I haven 't been around much , but there 's good reason . It seems I 've been completely overcome by hobbys . In the last two months , I 've done what seems like a gazillion scrapbook pages , and I 've made a few necklaces , but in the midst of all of that - I started yet another new thing . I createdhttp : / / www . granolamommy . com / I had subscribed to a yahoo group for women giving birth about the same time as Jake was due . Recently , I decided to play around with Mambo ( CMS ) a little , but I needed an idea for a site . I asked these women what kinds of things they thought might be lacking on the Internet ( no need to re - invent any wheels here ) . They cited all kinds of mommy topics like breastfeeding , cloth diapering , and other such stuff . And it 's not that this information doesn 't already exist - it just doesn 't exist in one spot . I then had the idea to make the site center around a wiki . I 'd provide the starting wiki pages , based on the suggestions of my fellow mommys , and let users supply their wisdom for the actual content . Hence , granolamommy was born . It 's still new , and there 's a lot that 's lacking . But hopefully it will be discovered some day , and moms everywhere will add their own wisdom to the pot . There are plenty of sites that will offer professional advice . But I think the best professionals are other moms . Check it out , please . Let others know . Put links to it from your own home page . Who knows - maybe this can turn into something pretty cool . So I did a lot of shopping while I was on maternity leave . Part of it was having my husband home every hour of every day . My time off with Nicole really was a bit of a vacation ( once I got the hang of caring for a baby ) . This time , I knew how to take care of a baby , and was prepared to have a fabulous relaxing vacation . But I wasn 't prepared to have company ( other than Jake , of course ) . So , I shopped . Over the course of November and December , I wound up watching a lot of What Not to Wear on TLC . Dangerous , dangerous thing to do in large doses . I wound up paying close attention to how they dressed other women that were close to my size and shape . I then headed to the mall with " the rules " . It didn 't take much for this to turn into an obsession . Once I had enough pants , tops and jackets to fill my closet , I then headed for the shoes . I never ever wore heels to work . I now wear them four days a week . The last thing I ever thought I 'd do was accessorize . However , on my last day off , I let Nicole drag me into one of those mall jewelry stores ( I think it was Icing ) . I started looking around , and found myself strangely attracted to some beaded necklaces . So I purchased a few in some colors that went with my new wardrobe . Mind you , I wear one piece of jewelry 24 / 7 , and that 's my wedding ring . When I go out , I add my engagement ring , and a birthstone ring . That 's it . No earrings , necklaces , or any other type of jewelry . But I went back to work sporting a new wardrobe , complete with high heels and necklaces . After that first week though , I realized I still had several outfits that lacked the appropriate beads . So what did I do ? Shop for necklaces ? NO . I went to the craft store and bought an assortment of beads , wires , clasps , and whatever else I thought I needed to make necklaces . Lo and behold , I now have a new hobby . Bummer . My wallet didn 't need that . But here I am , nearly $ 500 later . I have actually made one necklace , and I 'm absolutely crazy about it . I have enough beads to make at least 100 more necklaces , I 'm certain . Posted by Holy crap ! Where the heck did February go ? I meant to continue my story , apparently several weeks ago . But alas , it 's somehow March . Anyway , this is the last backstory post . Hopefully anything I decide to blab about in the future will actually be about current goings on . Not that anyone cares really , but who knows . So it 's Friday night ( December 8th ) . Jake is 3 weeks old , Rob finished out the week at work , and the next day we were scheduled to host a party welcoming the new baby . My mother - in - law wanted a shower , but there we had an issue with the whole gift solicitation thing for baby # 2 . So we talked her into just a plain ol ' party . Well , the party wasn 't to be . In the middle of the night ( around 1am ) , Rob started making some odd noise and convulsing . It woke me up immediately . I tried to talk to him ( yell at him was more like it ) and hold on to him , but I wasn 't strong enough . He was thrashing around so hard that he fell completely out of bed . It took him a few minutes , but the convulsing eventually stopped . His eyes were open , and he was attempting to move around , but he was clearly out of it . He looked like a deer in the headlights . He had no idea where he was or who he was or even how to talk . He truly looked scared to death . Once again I called 911 and some of the same guys that had visited our kitchen came again . It had been 5 weeks , but they still remembered him . Only this time , I was able to tell them that I thought he 'd had a seizure . He eventually came to , but he was seriously confused for at least a half hour . They asked him his name , and after giving it some thought , he told them . They asked him his age . Again he responded with his name . They got him up into a sitting position , and it didn 't take long for them to spot that something was very wrong with his right shoulder . At any rate , they packed him up and took him to the hospital . After they were gone , I fed Jake , woke up Nicole , and took everyone to the hospital . It was a very long night . His shoulder was dislocated , for starters . But his arm was alPosted by If you 're just tuning in , let me say these first several entries are all back story , because right now , nothing terribly interesting is happening in my life . But when I last left off , I had just given birth to my son . During my time in the hospital , Nicole stayed with my mom . It was a school weekend for Rob , and it was just easier for Nicole to have some dedicated Grandma time . I had signed Nicole up for a vacation week at day care for the following week , because she needed some time to get used to this new tenant at our house too . And there was Thanksgiving in there anyway , and somehow keeping her home just made it seem more normal . The following week however , we were pretty done having all four of us around at the same time . I know it 's a terrible thing to say , but we all were already ready for some time apart . So Nicole went back to day care . Rob got up with her in the morning , got her ready , and took her and came right back home . It was a lovely week - well , I think it was . I was mostly too tired to remember it , but I think it was pretty good . The following Monday was time for Rob to go back to work . It was all planned out - he was going to take Nicole to school during the week , and then go to work , and the baby and I would just hang out and watch TV and enjoy each other 's company . And that 's pretty much how that Monday went . I even got myself on our exercise bike and figured that would be a good way for me to spend Jake 's nap time . Rob called in the afternoon and said that if I could get Nicole from school , that he 'd go to the grocery store and do the shopping we needed . He 'd just call when he got there and have me read the current list to him . Sounded like a deal to me . As promised , he called at about 6 : 30 . I told him to give me a minute while I went to go get the grocery list . Not necessary , he tells me . He 's in the ER . He doesn 't know what happened . The last thing he remembers , he was in Best Buy . Then he was at the hospital . He vaguely recalls feeling faint . I was sick . I mean , he had been back at work for Posted by Nicole 's birth was a c - section . Not because I wanted it that way , but rather because just as I was getting ready to push , the baby 's heart rate dropped and wouldn 't come back . So lucky me , I got to experience labor ( well , up to 7cm anyway , then they ordered the epidural ) as well as a c - section . Well , not again . When the subject came up of VBAC vs repeat c - section , I gave it some thought , and decided that if I tried VBAC , it may still end up with surgery , and I 'd rather just stick to one kind of pain , thank you very much . So we decided on a c - section , so as to guarantee I wouldn 't have to deal with labor . And I 'm told that if there 's no labor , the recovery from surgery can be much smoother . So great , sign me up . All parties agreed on November 20th - nearly 2 full weeks before my due date . Well , you know what they say about the best laid plans . Apparently , Jake didn 't get the memo . On Thursday , November 16th , I went to work , planning on tying up all of the loose ends since the next day was the last day before I started my glorious 12 week maternity leave . I had experienced some labor - like pains the night before , but with Nicole , I had labor pains for two full days before she was actually born . So I didn 't think anything of it . And they really weren 't that painful anyway . But at about 2pm , I started noticing some contractions again . I went on with my work , but by 3 , they started getting a little more painful . So I started timing them . Seven minutes , then a few at 5 minutes , some more , some less . I had a meeting with my boss at 4 to talk about project management while I was gone . I also had two other people that I had promised some information to by the end of the day , so I continued with my Gantt chart , and then went to talk to one of the people who had been wanting my attention . I told him it was now or never , because I was going home after we talked . I told him I was having contractions so I was going to go home early and put my feet up . At 4 : 00 I knew I wasn 't going to last much longer if I wanted to be able to driPosted by Hi . I 'm Julie . I 've been married to Rob for 9 years , and have a ( nearly ) 4yo daughter named Nicole and a newborn son ( 11 weeks today ) named Jacob . My life is typically fairly boring and not nearly blog worthy , if I do say so myself . But the last few months have been packed with enough drama that I figured I might actually start to have some stories that someone else may actually be interested in . So here 's the background material . It all starts the first week in November . I 'm starting my 9th month of pregnancy . It 's a normal Thursday night . My husband always picked up Nicole from day care ( I did drop - off ) , so I wasn 't in a massive hurry to get home . I wish I had been that night . I came home and walked into the kitchen . The first thing I saw was Nicole perched up on a stool at the kitchen island , staring down at something . When I came in further , I saw that she was staring at her father , lying unconscious on the floor , seemingly bleeding from his head . His eyes were open , but he wasn 't even close to lucid . And there was Nicole , just staring . She 's 3 ( but turns 4 at the end of this month ) , and could easily have decided to leave the house and look for help . But thank goodness she stayed put . I called 911 , and they had almost arrived by the time I got off the phone . Rob started coming to a little bit while they were there , but was still clearly confused . His speech was slurred , and he wasn 't entirely sure where he was . They took him to the hospital , since we all suspected that he fell somehow and possibly had a head injury . All tests came back fine , and after they got him all cleaned up , I took him home . My neighbors all came over when they saw the ambulance , and all asked if they could help . One of them has a son Nicole 's age , and she took Nicole to her house so I didn 't have to take her with me to the hospital . I called my mother ( who 's about 45 minutes away ) , and asked her to pick up Nicole at the neighbor 's house and take her home and put her to bed . Rob and I got home around 1am . I e - mailed work and told them I 'd Posted by