It's been awhile.....

....so here's some of our more recent pictures and a video :)

Hunter checking out his lunch on the first day of school while he waited for the bus.

Getting on for the first time!

Rylie wanted to go on the bus too, but she was also excited about getting a new teacher at daycare.  After we got home there were a couple of hours until Hunter got home from school and she spent much of it like this....

I think she's starting to get used to all of the alone time with mom and dad now, but she still misses having big brother home with her.

Tonight was our first event at school, the ice cream social.  The kindergartners all performed- one song from each class.  It was really cute.  Here's Hunter's class...

Did I miss the easy button stuck on my forehead?

So...a few random things, since I've been behind on my blogging lately and I don't think I'm going to even begin to try to catch up. (I've finally finished all of my books so hopefully I'll be a more regular blogger again).

I didn't even look to see what my reader number is up to. Last week I cleared it out (by clicking on the "mark all as read" button), and I don't think I've read more than 5 or 6 since then. Let's see.....189. Wow, not as bad as I had imagined.

The cloth diapers are going ok. Daycare agreed to do them, and they seem to have no problem with them, except I took them on Friday after missing a couple of days, and they gave them all back clean. Not sure what that was about. And, since they will be doing cloth diapers too I will have to get some more of the all in one type diapers, I don't want to be doing this laundry every night if I can help it.

Rylie doesn't seem to really like the prefold diapers in the wrap. I think it's because she is so petite and no matter how I fold them they are so bulky on her that they make her bowlegged. I am testing a couple of different ideas right now though. So far so good.


What is it that makes both of my kids obsessed with my glasses? I try to put them out of sight when I put in my contacts in the morning, but it never fails that they somehow get ahold of them. Hunter got them this morning and put them in the little compartment on the back of his trike....and then told me about it. So far they haven't broken or bent them.....

And the easy button?

I was almost done with my route the other day when this middle aged lady stopped me and asked if I had any rubber bands. Really? Seriously? I mean...kids do this all the time so they can shoot their friends, but a middle aged lady?! Is the economy so bad that she can't afford to go buy some? And who uses rubber bands at home anyway? We don't have any in our house at all. I don't know when the last time was that I needed a rubberband.

I told her I only had old ones that were ready to break any second, which I wasn't lying about.

As if I wasn't already amazed by her asking for the rubberbands in the first place, I couldn't even believe the next question.

Are you ready for this?

She asked if I could drop some off the next day for her!

I figured the only explination was that I missed seeing the easy button stuck to my forehead, because what else could possibly make someone think that the post office supplies free office supply products...to your mailbox no less?

In honor of Labor Day!

Rocks In My Dryer is doing a special Meme in honor of Labor Day, and it looked like fun.

So here are my answers.

1. How long were your labors? Not completely sure but...

I think Hunter's was about 20 hours from the first contraction, but only because the lazy a$$ dr. on call wouldn't interrupt his sleep to break my water.

Rylie was about 4 or 5 hours I think- over a week of contractions, and finally my dr had me lie my way into getting admitted. From the time I went in to the time I had her it was actually about 8 hours.

2. How did you know you were in labor? Um, I didn't really (I'm sure I'm not the only one). With Hunter my contractions started (10 days early)and just progressed until I called and they made me come in to the hospital, more because of the long drive I think.

With Rylie I convinced my dr to basically induce me (4 days early).

3.Where did you deliver? Hospitals (2 different ones, yeah, I get around...)

4.Drugs? Definately, since I had Pitocin with each one. I think it's a dirty rotten scam for the dr.s to convince you to get an epidural. I think I would have at least tried not to get the epidural if I hadn't had the pitocin. I had both babies within an 2 hours of my water breaking. Hunter was less than an hour, and I think Rylie was just over an hour.

5.C-section? Neither one

6.Who Delivered? My OB dr both times. I lucked out and my water broke with Hunter just minutes before she came on call, I wound up having to stop pushing to wait for her to get there.

With Rylie, they broke my water and about 30 minutes later the nurse came in to adjust the monitor, I was feeling pressure, so she checked me and I only pushed 2 times.

If you'd like to share your story go on over to Rocks in My Dryer and link up!!!

Such is life...

We were running late trying to make it to swimming lessons tonight. I almost grabbed my purse, but since I was going maybe 3 miles I thought, naw, I won't need it. As I'm getting in the car (Hunter is all strapped in) I noticed the gas light was on. I thought for about 2 seconds about getting my purse, but then thought, naw, it's only 6 miles round trip. All the way there I thought about what we would do if we ran out of gas.
I didn't bring my cell phone either, because who needs that in the pool? No calling for help. That leaves walking, I could live with that I guess. If I had to walk home with Hunter, I could take the other car to get gas in the gas can, go back and fill up the car, then bring the car seats home for the kids and have Seth take me back to get the car. Or, hey, even better (and probably frowned upon by the boss) leave the Audi, drive the SUV home, and pick up Seth and the kids, and take him to get the Audi (OK, I'll admit, I just thought of that one).
I worried about it all the way there...

As we were checking in for the class a lady walked up behind us. Very chatty type. I checked us in, and it turned out this lady and her son were in the same class (this was day 4, and their 1st time there, she had to work late the other days.) I thought I could at least be nice and show her where our class was. She proceeded to sit down to wait next to us and kept talking. Very chatty this woman, really, I don't think I've actually ran into anyone out here that just talks to perfect strangers like she did.
We had about 3 minutes till class started, here's what I learned.

1. She's divorced.
2. The ex is a prick (not exactly her words).
3. He's 35.
4. He's been married 3 times.
5. He has a pool.
6. And a brand new baby.
7. He only knew his "new" wife for 6 weeks before they got married.
8. Her son has almost drown 3 or 4 times just this summer (I'm wondering how true this is)
9. The ex doesn't seem to care about taking the son to swimming lessons.
10. The ex is a certified diver "so he should care"
11. "and that's why people get divorced"

Do you think she was a little bitter?

It certainly took my mind off of my gas light.

After class I saw my friend from work who's daughter's class starts after ours is over. I was so happy to see her. She saved me. I didn't even have to ask. She's that kind of friend. All I had to say was "I left my purse, and my gas light is on". She followed me to the gas station on the corner and gave me some money for gas. I am so blessed to have a friend like that. I know if it was me I would have done the same.

I didn't have to walk home. And more importantly, I didn't have to leave the Audi sitting by the side of the road, because that would have been a tragedy!

#723 on the list of things they don't tell you about raising kids

The flushing-things-down-the-toilet-because-I-can-phase.

When we moved into our house we knew we were going to do a lot of work to it. The carpet in the living room and hallway was really disgusting. It was white shag carpet that was so dirty it had a greyness to it, and if you walked on it barefoot it felt like it was cutting into your feet, like crunchy carpet. We decided we had better get it done right away since Hunter was just getting to the age of crawling and I just couldn't have my baby crawling around on that dreadful nasty carpet.
One of the other things we decided to do since we were going to put tile everywhere except the bedrooms and den, was to get new toilets. Our other house was brand new so no one had used the toilets there before us, (OK, probably a few construction workers, but I blocked that out.)

Have I ever mentioned my extreme dislike of public toilets? Well, now I have. I extremely dislike public toilets. So much so that in high school I would literally "hold it" all day. How I've never had a bladder infection I'll never know. On family vacations I would hold it as long as humanly possible to try to avoid going any more than absolutely necessary.

So anyway, the thought of moving into this house that had at least 4 previous "sets" of tenants/owners, just grossed me out to no end, so it was a good thing we were getting new toilets. They were nice, we didn't spend a ton of money on them, but they got the job done.

After Rylie was born last year, Hunter must have been either really deprived of attention, or really curious. I'm going to say really curious, because he is after all a boy, and boys seem to like to see what happens when you do X.

One day the toilet in our guest bathroom wouldn't flush right.

We tried plunging it.

That didn't work.

We tried snaking it.

That didn't work either.

Finally, Seth took the toilet off, and guess what we found in the trap...

This...( I'm sparing you the real picture I took of the one that was actually down there, it's pretty gross!)




Yep, that's right, Hunter wanted to see what would happen if he flushed this thing down the toilet. I didn't happen to notice that it was missing because I only had about three of those things. We had actually thought it was a golf ball.

So Seth re-set the toilet.

It still wouldn't flush right.

He plunged it again, and again, and again....

Cut to 3 weeks or so later, we finally went and bought another new toilet after numerous attempts of plunging, snaking, taking the toilet off again, and all that. And this time I bought a toilet that is supposed to get just about anything down. (We think there might have been a crack or something on the inside that was preventing it from flushing right, since we never found anything else in there.)

I really hope Rylie doesn't go through this phase.

(Since having kids, I've gotten a refreshed dislike of public toilets... because your kids just can't use them without touching every square inch of everything they shouldn't touch. And, right now Hunter's at the don't-come-in-the-stall-with-me phase, so who knows what he's touching in there, shudder)

Still here....

I don't even remember where I left off.



Yesterday the doctor sent us to get an ultrasound.



They couldn't rule our appendicitis, so they sent us to Phoenix Children's Hospital ER.



Let me tell you how far that is from our house. It's.Far.



We got there around 5:30pm.



Spent about 20 minutes in the waiting room (isn't that illegal? I thought it was mandatory for it to be at least an hour.)



We had our own little room with a bed, a recliner, and a tv.



They sent us for an xRay, and left us there for awhile (they said they got busy in the OR, I think they forgot us.)



xRay was inconclusive, so they sent him for a CT scan (he sure didn't like that one)



All they could tell for sure was that he's really full of poop.



So at 11:30pm or so we got discharged with instructions to follow up today.



He slept fairly well most of the night (I got about 4 hours...maybe).



This morning we started all over again with the tummy hurts, and pain, and then he threw up all over me again.



After calling every dr, office, nurseline, and finally Dr. Erin, I took her advice and we're trying something just a little less invasive than an enema. Hopefully that will work (I really don't want to have to do the enema). I can't do another day of seeing my guy in pain like this, not to mention the sleep deprivation, smelly, dirty house, mountains of laundry.....

Ugh, really....

It's now 11 pm. I got home an hour ago.
At 1:30 Hunter was running around here acting fine.
I cancelled his 3:15 appt at the Dr.
He falls asleep at 3:30.
He wakes up at 4:30 crying hysterically.
Nothing helps him.
I take him to urgent care, we got there at 5:00.
They get urine, blood, a throat swab....and with the throat swab he gags and pukes all over me and him. Nice.
Tests all come back normal, but Dr. refers us to ER for ultrasound to rule out appendicitis.
We go there right away, get there at 6:00. MIL and SIL meet us there, I'm so grateful for that. ER waiting room alone would have really sucked!
Hunter sleeps, the whole time.
We finally get called back at 9:00.
He sleeps on the bed, in a gown.
Dr comes in at 9:30, says he's fine and we can go home.
Hunter wakes up while putting his clothes on, says his tummy doesn't hurt anymore, he wants to go home to sleep.
I pray that I get to sleep all night, I need it.

A waste of a good sick day?

Is there such a thing?

All night last night Hunter was up and down. Mommy this and that, my tummy hurts, I have to poop, I don't wanna poop, I gotta trow up, I don't wanna trow up, my troat hurts, I wanna sleep with daddy, I wanna sleep on the couch, I wanna sleep on the floor. And you don't even get to experience the high pitched, loud whinyness of it. Every 20 minutes it was something. No sleep for Mommy.

I guess my Mommy instinct is failing me. I have no idea what's wrong. My only clue is the persistent, "My tummy hurts".

He hasn't eaten much, even though he says he's hungry. He asks for something, I make it, and he doesn't eat it.

He's been drinking a ton, I've been giving him 20%juice to 80% water.

He's been eating "hopcicles", from the "waywador".

This morning (around 5 am, cause yes, I was up) I decided that I would take Rylie to daycare and stay home with Hunter (since we paid for Friday I figured she should at least go today, I wasn't going to waste any more of my money, which is a whole other post in itself).

We took Rylie, he didn't want to get out of the car while I took her in.

He kept saying he wanted his daddy and I had a package to mail, so we went to work. I mailed my package on the machine in the lobby, and he saw his daddy. Can I just say how much I love the fact that I can't just get a day off from there without some reason to go there?

I made the mistake of asking him if he wanted pancakes when we left for home, thinking I'd just pay a visit and waste some money at McD's. Then I looked at the clock and realized it was actually lunchtime, no pancakes. OK, I'll just get some mix and make "homemade" pancakes.
He didn't like them.

I'm taking him to the Dr. this afternoon, even though I'm sure there's really nothing they can do, and I'll probably just wind up looking like some kind of over reactive mother. I'm just stumped. He visually doesn't feel well, he was actually laying on the floor in our bedroom this morning when I got out of the shower, instead of asking to watch TV or playing. the whole time we've been home he's just been laying around, which is totally not his usual self. He still hasn't thrown up.

Oh well, I've been there before, when he had a 103 fever and it was New Year's holiday weekend, and he was 11 months old. The Dr at Urgent Care told me babies get fevers. Didn't look at him much, and didn't seem overly concerned. Didn't even take any tests. Just made me feel like an over reactive parent.

Well, I guess better over reactive than under, right?

What am I really thinking...

when I'm out on my route?

Well, it really depends on the day.

Usually it has nothing to to with anything that's in the mail that day.

Seriously, I think very little about what may or may not be in the mail/packages people get.

Occasionally I may read the cover of OK! magazine, but only because they come up with the craziest stuff.

And yeah, once in awhile I might read the cover of Soap Opera Digest, but only if it's the ABC soaps one, and only if it has something to do with General Hospital, not that I watch it, but I used to.

So, here's the big secret...
I'm usually thinking, "Oh, I hope they aren't in there watching me because I just..." and then finish the sentence with any number of these remarks on a given day.

...had to go back to 3 different boxes (on the same street) because I wasn't paying close enough attention and it caught up to me.

...tripped on the sidewalk as I was taking a package to the door, and in the process, dropped said package.

...fell into my vehicle, because I didn't step up high enough and got my foot caught on the step. (causing a bruise on my arm from the stearing wheel)

...dropped all of the mail on the ground as I went to put it in the box, and then had to get out to pick it all up.

...twisted my ankle on the uneven ground as I stepped out of the vehicle.

...spilled all of my water down my front when I was getting a drink. (and man is that cold!)

...ran over their dog! (no, just kidding on that one, it's never happened to me, but did happen to someone I know, and right in front of the owner)

...opened the door on the box and it fell off the post. (This has happened too many times.)

...don't have time to talk for 20 minutes if they come out here.

Ok, I do think about more than that, but on most days I'm so clumsy I usually think one of these things at least once. I have more bruises on my arms, and most are from the door latches. They stick out obnoxiously far and I'm always running in to them. And I pretty much always backtrack if I miss a package (I do it from memory) which I probably average about every other day.

Lately, I've been loving all the questions I've been getting about the heat.

"Is it hot enough for you?"...um, what do you think?
"Do you have air conditioning in that thing?"...no, actually my heat is on all year, so it's hotter in the vehicle than outside.

I do have a couple of really nice people that leave me water. One lady puts a container of ice and a gatorade in the box for me, a full size gatorade...NICE!

So those of you that were worried, have no fear, your mail doesn't really tell us that much about you.

Oops, I got sidetracked.

May 2008

Here's a few of the pictures from our trip (again, click on the picture). I have been having too much fun on my computer tonight. I totally ignored my kids this afternoon (of course not, what kind of mother do you think I am?). They were happy though, they got to play in the backyard. Unfortunately, Hunter lost control of his gator and ran over Rylie. I was outside with them and he had been doing a good job of avoiding her, but I guess she must have dove in front of him at the last second (you can picture that right?) He jumped off his gator, I know he felt really bad. He was crying, she was crying, but as soon as Hunter gave her a kiss she was giggling again. No scratches, bumps, or bruises, just a little grass in her hair. And of course she went right back out and climbed up on the stupid thing. Anyway, I managed to add some nifty new features to my blog. Now you can subscribe and get a daily e-mail whenever I write something new, all in the name of simplicity, for those of you computer challenged.

Hunter- Future pilot?

Hunter got to go in the cockpit on the plane after we landed in Des Moines. He was too shy to actually get too far in, so I barely got a chance to get this picture. When we were waiting in Denver for our connecting flight to Des Moines, the pilot came by to board the plane and saw Hunter and asked if he'd like to go up there. I was shocked that it was even a possibility. I didn't know they even did that anymore. On our flight back home, from Denver to Phoenix, I wondered if they had let some other 3-year-old kid take a look, and even fly the plane, it was the bumpiest flight I've ever been on. I think Seth was white knuckled from hanging on to the armrests! (Note the newspapers right next to where Hunter is, I guess you can fly a plane and read the paper at the same time!)

English Class

Ok, really. I knew that our kids learn from observation, but you don't really get it until your child says to you "Mommy, stop talking, I was talking to daddy!" I wonder where he got that?

Lately, whenever Seth and I are having a conversation, Hunter will come in and just start talking to whichever one of us he needs at the moment. I started telling him he needs to wait, because daddy and I are talking.

He's also started telling Rylie "Don't do that Rylie" and "Come here Rylie" just like he hears us say. One of his other recent sayings sounds a lot like "Oh damnit!" he uses that one a lot. I like to think he's really saying "Oh, darnit!" It sounds close, really.

And, another thing. Thank you so much to the person who gave us the very cute seasonal hooded santa clause towel. One night we were getting ready for bath and he said "I want my Ho!" I'm like, "Excuse me mister?!" He said "my Ho". For a second I thought he had seen something he shouldn't have on tv. I was really relieved to find out he was referring to his towel, he just thought that was what Santa was, I guess all the Ho, Ho, Ho, and stuff is pretty confusing for a 3 year old.

What a day.......

Here's how the morning started. Rylie always winds up sleeping like this. She's usually a very smiley girl in the mornings, even if we have to wake her up. I hear that she takes after her momma. This is a nice break after having Hunter, who always started the morning way earlier than we really needed to, and would cry immediately if we didn't come and get him as soon as he was awake.

I hurried up to get through my route so I could get Hunter to the dentist, only to find out that the insurance person I talked to the other day gave me the number of a pediatric dr, instead of a pediatric dentist. There's a big difference! I got to the office and sat there for a minute in the waiting room, and at least I figured it out before I waited too long. I'm thinking I'll probably wind up taking him to the one that our insurance doesn't cover. It's not like the insurance pays that much anyway.

On top of that, my new laptop that is only 2 weeks old+1 day, is back at Best Buy tonight in the hands of the Geek Squad. They have a 14 day return policy on computers. So since I'm 1 day past they have to diagnose the problem and possibly have to send it off to some more qualified people if they can't find out what's wrong. It's very disappointing to have a brand new computer with problems. I know it's not an operational problem, I'm no idiot when it comes to computers, and when you turn it on and the keyboard just doesn't work, there's a problem. Let's hope it's a simple fix.

And here's how the evening wound down (pic below). Hunter has just about used my treadmill more than I have since I got it (I haven't had it long). He likes to get on it and walk (on the slowest setting possible). I'm not sure how he can possibly find it a fun thing to do, but he does actually stay on for 5 mins at a time. I hope I can get caught up to him, with my 30 mins a day. Speaking of which, it's that time........

I feel Horrible!

Ok, I finally took Hunter to the dentist today. I feel like the worst mother in the world. He has a bunch of cavities, and needs the equivalent of a baby root canal. He said on the way to school that his mouth hurt, and I checked out his mouth when we got there and one of his back teeth has a brown spot, and almost looks like it broke. I feel absolutely horrible. I know it's all my fault, I'm the one who does the grocery shopping (no more sweets), and he always has juice (even though it's diluted alot). Combine that with how hard it is to remember to have him brush his teeth (let alone me remembering my own) and the fact that he grazes all afternoon. Just a combination for disaster. It's going to cost a pretty penny to get it all fixed. They are going to put him under to do it, so at least he won't have to suffer too much. I think it would be worse for him to be awake and drugged. I know one thing for sure, Rylie is not having juice at all for a good long while. I'm just getting her off a bottle, and the only thing she's getting is milk and water. And I'm going force myself to remember to brush their teeth, even if I have to do it while they sleep.

It's been a long day, I had to leave work to take him to the dentist, and then go back to finish. Seth had the day off and he went too. Hiunter did really well for his exam though, had to have 3 xrays cause it's hard to get the little biter thing in there. He always does really good at the dr office, so I wasn't too surpised. I'm glad Seth was there though too, he was able to keep him distracted while we waited for the dr.

Obsession

Hunter recently (about 2 months ago) developed a liking of Spiderman. Since he's only 3 it's really the first time he's had a specific thing he likes. He's had general preferences, sure, but nothing where you could say "look Hunter__" and expect him to really care, (except candy of course). So sometime in the last couple of months, he expressed an interest in Spiderman. We thought this was really cute. So one day I took him to the store with me, and I thought he'd really like to watch the Spiderman movie. Well, what's better than buying the DVD for $20? Buying all 3 DVDs for $30, of course. Since then we've seen all 3 movies more times than I could begin to count.

Hunter started running around the house pretending to be Spiderman. It's really rather funny because he goes up to the wall and acts like he's going to climb it. For Easter Hunter got a Spiderman costume. The first day he had that thing on and off about 50 times. Of course he can't do it himself, so he has to bring it to one of us to put it on. At least he didn't insist on wearing it out of the house. We explained to him that Spidey stays home, and that seemed to work. We're finally down to putting it on only a couple of times a day. Hey, at least we're already set for Halloween!