Miscellanies

Wednesday, September 26, 2007
I wrote awhile back about how there were days I feel like a super-mom. Last night, we were a super-family.

It was just one of those nights where everything is spot on, perfect. Of course, there are still moments of whining, defiance and quick tears... and then the girls have their fits, too :) Daycare pick-up was joyful, Eve was a one-girl comedy show, Jo was in a great mood, we warmed up a bunch of leftovers for supper (which would normally put me in a VERY crabby mood... but for some reason, I didn't mind last night,) were done eating and had the kitchen cleaned up before 6:00, got everyone ready, loaded in the wagon and headed to the park. We rivaled the frickin' von Trapp family, sans homemade curtain-clothing.

Since there were frantic middle-school football games going on by "our" park, and we wanted to play some fetch with the dog, we headed up to the local elementary school. Patrick has played with the dog and girls there before, but I never had. It was a nice change of scenery. I don't know what it was, something in the air, alignment of the stars, Jupiter was in retrograde... I don't know. It was just... good. Even though there was a stream of traffic on 3rd St, and people out walking their dogs, and an event going on at the church across the street, I felt like we had the world to ourselves. In that moment, I had everything I could ever ask for.

Maybe we'll have to do leftovers more often.
______________________________________

Updates:

My back and neck are doing much better. I've been going to the natural care clinic a couple times a week. I'll start going once a week now, and can hopefully stop going soon, and be in "rehab." Whatever that means. Do I have to give up the booze?

Speaking of which - Pat and I had an interesting convo last night. He gets confused by "on the wagon" and "off the wagon." He always mixes them up - so when talking about someone who is currently sober, wants to say that they're "off the wagon." Apparently - "the wagon" isn't sobriety in his mind... but one giant party, instead. Woo-hoo! Let's get on the wagon! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that his fraternity always had a float in the homecoming parade in college, and everyone would be drinking and partying at 9:00 in the morning... on the wagon. Hmmm...

Eve's noggin is fine. She's got a nice little gash over her right eye on her forehead, but it looks like it's healing. And it certainly hasn't slowed her down one bit. Now she has taken to giving me mini-heart attacks by trying to climb over the gate at the top of the basement stairs. Might as well reserve a bed in the ER now.

Ben is undergoing treatments. He has a long road ahead. Keep him and my brother and Amy in your thoughts, as it is a bumpy road.

Pat's Grandma is taking things one day at a time. She is still fighting the staph infection and trying to find a balance between all that ails her.

Another Jo-ism... the other night she had a tear in her thumbnail. So I got the clippers and took care of it for her. It had torn a little short, and must have been bothering her. She said something about it hurting, and I told her that I was sorry it hurt, but it would grow out soon and stop hurting. She thought about this for a while, and then asked me "when her thumb would grow up.

Amen.

Monday, September 24, 2007
This wins my coveted "Cool Post of the Day Award."

What's that you say? I don't have an award? Oh. Crap.

Check it out anyway.

http://www.dooce.com/archives/daily/09_20_2007.html

By the moon and the stars in the sky...

I swear.

No - not the lyrics to a John Michael Montgomery song... I actually mean that sometimes, I swear. I really try not to... but situations just bring it on. You know, like driving. And letting the dog out to go potty and having him bolt through the giant hole in our fence. (NOTE - said hole in fence is now fixed. Yahoo!) So when situations like this arise, sometimes the only sure thing is to let out a good ole G-dammit.

So I'm in the kitchen on Saturday and Pat is working outside and the dog has just been let out and I hear Josie ask where Brewster went and I say something to the effect of "outside to go potty" or "in the yard with Daddy," and she goes to the sliding door to look and I hear "G-dammit!"

Oops. So I pause.

And I hear it again. So I decide that I should probably address the situation. Or should I? But then I hear her say it again. Yup. I should.

So I step to Eve's bedroom, and Jo is leaning against the rocking chair, looking somewhat sheepish, and I ask her, calmly, politely, what she just said. And she tells me. And the funny thing is, she says it with this tone and look on her face like she knows that it's a bad word and shouldn't be repeated, without me even having to say so.

At this moment I'm feeling much more parental - at least in an authoritative, I-need-to-teach-you-right-from-wrong, way than I really ever have before, although also somewhat like I'm drowning, because geez, Martha, I don't know what the heck I'm doing.

So I simply say, "Jo, that's not a nice word and we shouldn't say it. Mommy and Daddy shouldn't say it, either."

And, bless her little soul, she simply says back to me, "okay, Mommy. I won't." Could I be any more lucky??!! We'll see if it sticks.

So like I says, the fence is fixed. And the laundry is done, at least for an hour or so. And we had a pretty low-key weekend. I have this image burned in my brain of the girls in the Barbie Jeep in our yard last night, Josie with her foot firmly fixed on the gas, Eve in the passenger seat, holding onto the windshield and the biggest smile you've ever seen in your life plastered across her face, and Pat racing along beside them grabbing the steering wheel to make sure they don't inflict bodily harm onto their little selves.

Then Monday morning comes. And I'm chatting with co-workers, and my spy-phone rings. Okay - so I'm not really a spy, I just play one on tv. But I do have a display phone at work, so if I ever don't answer when you call me, it's probably on purpose. So I look, and see that it's DB. G-dammit. DB only calls if someone is bleeding. And even then, maybe only if they're bleeding profusely.

So I throw up a little bit in my mouth because I know this isn't going to be happy news, then pick up the phone. Eve bumped her head (big surprise) and has a gash above her eye. DB got the bleeding to stop, and put a butterfly bandage on it, and Eve is fine. So I delegate stitches-duty to Pat and off he goes. And that's pretty much all I know for right now. He got the runaround at our clinic and I think he's at the ER with her right now. ***UPDATE. Just got angry call from angry husband. Still waiting to be seen. Daughter getting angry. ****UPDATE. Finally seen at ER. Glued cut closed. Seriously? We pay people lots of money. To glue my child. I'm in the wrong profession.

Like sands through the hourglass...

My Friend, Sugar

Monday, September 17, 2007
Reader be warned. This is going to get rambly.

Sometimes I can't find the words.

And it drives me absolutely insane.

You may say that judging by the length of this post - it looks like I found words-o-plenty. Which I did, but what I mean is that sometimes I feel like I can't find the right words.

Usually when I'm feeling all discombobulated, making a list helps. If we're leaving for a weekend trip - I have a list of everything we need to pack. Having a birthday party - a list of everything that needs to be done and bought. Approaching changing seasons - a list of all the clothes I need to buy for the girls. But this time - making a list just won't cut it.

Let me explain.

Jody at Nitty.Gritty frequently blogs about finding the joy in your life, taking note of happy moments as they occur and enjoying the little things. I greatly admire her and her outlook on life, so I'm always thinking a lot about what she says, and trying to take joy in the small moments in our life and the lives of our little girls, while they're still little.

Maybe I've just encountered so many of them lately that I can't wrap my mind around all of it. So many times over the weekend I was whacked upside the head with a whole lot of... lucky. Josie and Evie are blowing me away every single day with their... well, just their collective being. They are so happy. And funny. And smart. And beautiful. Of course, I've always known this - but I am really focusing on appreciating it. Now that I'm appreciating it... it's the expressing it that I'm having problems with.

Who knows. Maybe how well I'm able to express it just depends on what time of the month it is. If you know what I mean. And if you don't - don't sweat it. I'm not going to explain. Sorry - tmi.

Wow. A bit better, I am feeling. Cathartic, this blogging is.

So. How 'bout a weekend wrap-up and a few highlights to really drive home my point. Wait - did I have one? Not so much? Oh, well. Guess time will tell.

If you haven't noticed, my Friday-updates play like a broken record. Which I absolutely love, because we get to spend them with people we absolutely love, the Gronaus. This time around, we played at the Dayton's Bluff Rec Center open-gym time for toddlers / pre-schoolers. Apparently, there are a number of these open gyms around our area, we're just finally getting in on them. And they are fabulous. A whole gymnasium open for little ones to run and jump and play and make a mess in for 2 hours. Genius.

Friday afternoon we packed up the girls and took them to Grandma Di and Grandpa Mike's house. For the night. I know. Can you believe it? A whole night to ourselves to enjoy the wedding reception for our friends, Dave and Dana, who got married in Wyoming in August. Um, a good time was had. Perhaps a little too good, but I digress. But what a treat not to have to rise and shine at the crack of 6:30 with the girls and their crazy demands for attention and food and whatnot.

Saturday we picked up the girls around 10:30 am, then went to a housewarming party for another friend, Katy, up in Hugo later that afternoon. Our stay was cut a bit short as Eve got a heckuva tummy ache and started to scream. Nothing gets a party started like a screaming toddler, so we un-gracefully made our exit. And she continued to scream the entire way home. The kind of scream that says she's in pain and kills every cell in your heart because you don't really know what's wrong, and there's nothing you can do about it. I don't know if something she ate rubbed her the wrong way, or if she had too much fruit, or what - but her poor little belly was hard as a rock, and we were finally able to get a couple of good burps out of her, and she seemed to be better. And proceeded to sleep well - which was a blessing, considering that I was braced for a rough night.

Sunday we went to St. Jerome's Fall Festival. Holy cow - I can't even begin to believe that a whole year has passed since the last one... I can remember last year's with crazy clarity. I've usually got a pretty darn good memory for details - even with "mommy-brain," but the amount of things I remember from last year is kinda weird. Like where we parked, and the people sitting in front of us, what the girls were wearing, and walking through the school holding Josie's hand and baby-Evie in her carrier on my front... it's weird.

And here we were, doing it all over again a year later. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, Evie fell asleep on Pat half-way through the outdoor polka mass, and we just plain had a good time (here, I'm tempted to say despite the polka mass... but I won't :):):).) Josie got to ride a pony, Sugar, which I'm pretty sure is the same pony she rode last year. We had some lunch, played some games, and Jo went in the "bouncy" 3 times (and got scared at the top of the slide the last time, so Pat had to climb in and go get her to alleviate the back-up of impatient kids impatiently waiting their turns.) Eve is still a little too little to enjoy most of the activities, but she loves being outside and was happy wheeling around in the stroller, with the occasional stop to let her roam around to eat rocks and shove pine cones up her nose and threaten the Jesus statue in front of the cake-walk. Who could ask for anything more!? It was way past nap-time, so we told Jo it was time to leave. Her poor little tired self didn't agree - and she cried the whole way to the van. "It's not time to go hoooooommmme!"

Oh - cute Josie story. Last night she was reading books with Daddy before bed. Big surprise. They came out of the bedroom to make the last potty stop of the night - and something caught my attention in the doorway out of the corner of my eye, so I look, and there's Josie, standing in the doorway, with her booty sticking out, shaking her butt at me. When I looked, she smirked and bolted into the bathroom. Of course, she thought she was quite funny, so repeated the performance on the way back to her room. Didn't say a word, just shook her butt and continued on her way. That kid cracks me up.

Cute Evie story - due to the um, crabby, disposition of our cat, Baxter, our girls never have "meowed" a sweet little kitten mew when you ask them what sound a kitty makes. It's more of a growling, agitated, angry meow-sound. So Eve loves that crazy cat, regardless of his crusty nature. If he dares to walk in the same room as her, she screams excitedly, and runs to belly-flop on top of him and love him up. Which, as you can guess, he does not take too kindly to. He'll "meow" at her - and now she has started to throw one right back at him. Which only perturbs him even more. And I think slightly baffles him - as he thinks he's being tough and scary, and most kids would probably agree and high-tail it for safety. Poor Eve doesn't have anyone to compare him to, so she thinks it's perfectly normal behavior.

And. Thanks to everyone for your kindness and good thoughts for Ben and Grandma Ashton. It sounds like things are going well for Ben, and they didn't find any more cancer in his body. I wish, so wish, that I had equally good news for Grandma Ashton. I don't know all of the details, but it sounds like she has a couple of tough decisions to make regarding continuing the antibiotics or continuing dialysis. Hopefully they can get the infection under control and things will turn around.

And I'm done. For now.

The Power of Positive Thinking...

Tuesday, September 11, 2007
I'm writing today to ask for good thoughts, well-wishes, prayers... whatever sort of positive vibes you're into... for a couple of family members.

My brother's wife, Amy, has an 18-year-old son, Ben. Ben was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma this summer. They found it in a salivary gland. He's looking at some tough treatments coming up, and I know they all could use your well-wishes.

Patrick's Grandma Ashton is currently hospitalized at United. She's had a tough time this summer - had heart problems and started kidney dialysis, and now more recently, a staph infection landed her back in the hospital. Currently, she's still fighting the infection and blood clots in her legs, the stent for dialysis keeps plugging, and she's in a lot of pain. This is one amazing woman who has given birth to 11 children... and manages to keep track of all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Someone with such a huge heart deserves huge prayers. Not only is she struggling right now, but her husband, Patrick's Grandpa Ashton, is in a care center. Their whole family could really use a break from anymore bad news.

Half-Cracked

Monday, September 10, 2007
Chiro update: I didn't *quite* get the relief I was seeking. After ooh-ing and aah-ing over how tight my upper-back and neck muscles were, she was able to adjust my neck nicely, but my spine wouldn't cooperate. I'm scheduled out for 4 more appointments during the next couple of weeks. I spent most of the weekend mighty sore, but by Sunday was feeling quite a bit better.

Otherwise, not much for news. Sometimes I feel like all I write about is the stressful, "bad" stuff that happens to us. Really, that "stuff" is only about 2% of our daily lives. The rest is quite mundane. But fun.

We took the girls to Como Town and the Zoo yesterday morning. The weather was perfect, it wasn't crowded, we got a great parking spot, and we had a coupon (of course! I am married to Captain Coupon, after all...) for buy ten ride tickets, get ten free - which is a crazy amount of tickets for a two and a-half-year old considering that the rides that interest her are one or two tickets - AND not to mention that we just absolutely LOVE that place. As far as I'm concerned, it beats the Minnesota Zoo a hundred times over. Anyway - we have lots of leftover tickets for Como Town rides if anyone is interested in going with us again by the end of the season. Super-cute side note: Josie takes her baby with us everywhere now. Including the zoo. She would sit in front of each exhibit and make sure her baby could see the animals. If you go and the animals seem a little disturbed, it's probably residual stress leftover from our visit and Eve shrieking with excitement at the top of her lungs when she'd spot the animals. Some of the monkeys seemed equally as interested in her as she was in them. Or they high-tailed it for safety.

Toddlers are funny. I went to get groceries yesterday afternoon after naps while Pat took the girls and dog over to his parents' house for a quick visit. We all arrived back home at about the same time, and commenced turning the house upside down in an attempt to put away all $150 worth of groceries and get supper started. Josie and Eve were "helping" me put away groceries. Jo actually is a pretty good helper, while Eve just likes to take things out of the bags and set them wily-nily all over the floor. So while simultaneously trying to grab jars of spaghetti sauce from Jo before they got dropped on the floor and keep Eve from opening and eating the container of mystery corn meal in our pantry - a collection of empty paper bags started to gather near the stove. We finally got everything put away and washed and prepared, and I turned to fold up the aforementioned empty bags. Only to find all of the letters and refrigerator magnets in one. And my shoes in another. And the remotes, and remote basket and baby monitors scattered in others. I turned to look for the culprit, and there is Jo, sitting sweetly in her chair at the table, smirking at me.

We bravely attempted a family dinner outing on Saturday night. After taking the girls to a park in West St. Paul, we went to Chula Vista on Robert Street. That's right - you guessed it, with a coupon. It went well. Josie is a piece of cake, it's Eve that is the questionable factor in the equation right now. Not because she's Eve, but because she's 13 months old. And doesn't like to sit still. But we came prepared with an arsenal of toys and books, and made it through the meal without any major embarrassing incidents. We were seated next to a wishing well, which Josie told me she'd like to go in. While Pat was wrangling Eve, who at this point was free from her highchair and was stubbornly attempting to go into the kitchen, I convinced Jo that the wishing well was only for coins to go in, and then she delightedly cleaned me out of pennies.

We got home after dinner, only to discover that Brewster had eaten all the cherry tay-moes (that's tomatoes, in case you didn't know) we had picked and put in a bowl on the counter. Jerk-ass dog. I was really looking forward to enjoying our bounty - considering that I've only consumed about 4 since the crop started. Somehow - when Pat and Jo go outside to gather them... not many make it into the house. Needless to say, this tragedy was the subject of most of our conversation for the remainder of the night.

Let's see, what else... um, Josie can count up to six now. And is very interested in writing her name. And Eve's name, and mommy, and daddy... with help, of course. It's so fun to see her desire to learn and soak up everything. And she amazes us every day with her manners. And when she gets up in the morning or when we pick her up after work, she tells us how much she misses us, and asks us if we missed her. We're bursting with pride, if you couldn't tell. She's such a doll.

And I've failed to mention, partly because I'm afraid of "jinxing" it - but Eve is sleeping like an absolute dream now. She has taken a total 180-degree turn, and is a breeze to put to bed. She still gets a nighttime bottle, we read about 3 books while she sits on my lap in the chair in her room, we sing a lullaby and she's practically diving head-first into her crib on her own. She buries her face in her blankie, turns to grab her other blankie, smiles and... that's it. I exit her room and she babbles contentedly for a bit before drifting off. To most of you this probably seems pretty routine - but for us, it's a dream-come-true. Which is why we're going to stinkin' enjoy every second of it while we can!

I'm sure part of the reason why she's sleeping so well now is because she is so active - what with walking, and running, and climbing and falling all over the place. The joy she takes in all of her new tricks can't even begin to match her parents'...

Big kudos to Patrick for cleaning out and organizing the garage on Saturday. It was bad. Real bad. I think he likes to let it get that bad just because I'm SO excited then when he does clean it. Well, I'm on to your shenanigans, mister.

Oh - and we just spent an insane amount of money on Van Halen tickets. I don't really know why I mention this. Perhaps to justify our equally insane over-usage of coupons. :)

Goin' to the chiro... and I'm gonna get adju-uu-uu-sted...

Thursday, September 06, 2007
(sung to the tune of "Goin' to the Chapel")

It's Christmas. Or a really good sale at Macy's. Or maybe free health coolers from Caribou. That's just how excited I am for my upcoming appointment with my new chiropractor today.

Funny how quickly we forget major events in our lives, like when we're in a fender-bender (8 years ago) and have to visit a chiro for a few months after for adjustments, massage and muscle stim treatments.

Yeah. I totally forgot about that until something tweaky happened in my back and neck last weekend as we were getting ready to leave for my grandma's house. It hasn't gone away like it should have when I ignored it, and has invited a whole host of other annoying guests to its' party like a constant, dull headache and numbness down my right arm. Oh, and the super-fun party trick of not being able to turn my head without a sharp, shooting pain through my back.

Oooohhhh. I can taste it now... that one little crack right in between my shoulder blades. I can't wait!!

Might have to get a health cooler to celebrate :)

Sweet As Sweet Can Be

Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Sometimes I need to think before I say something stupid. It's a trait that runs in my family... right, Mamasan...? :):):)

Anyhoo... apparently, I spoke too soon yesterday. The doc said that we should keep up the drops for 24 hours after the eyes have been clear. Which we did. But. We arrived at daycare to pick Beaner and Doodle up last night - and Doodle (that's Eve, just in case you didn't know) has gunk in her eye, again. Still not sure why DB (that's Daycare Betty, just in case you didn't know) didn't call us... but we've started the drop regimen all over again, on both of them, in hopes that this will Finally Go Away. No one else is showing any symptoms, yet. But I'm not going to count my cows before they calve. Or something.

So I tell Beaner (that's Josie, just in case you didn't know) to come get her drops, and she dutifully listens and comes to lay her head on my lap. That's the smoothest part. Then it's a struggle to get her to lie still, to not squinchy her eyes shut so hard that there is no hope in the world any of the drops will seep in and to keep her arms and hands out of my way. But we finally succeed without too much flailing around, and she gets up like it was a walk in the park and says in the sweetest little voice, "Thank you, Mommy."

Number of the day: 7. School bus count on trek to daycare this morning: 7. Ah ha ha! 7 school buses.

From Rosey to Pinky...

Tuesday, September 04, 2007
We've survived our first bout with pink eye. Jo fell victim on Thursday, with a confirmed diagnosis on Friday, and Eve followed suit on Saturday. What an annoying little distraction that is. The drops, the eye goo... but it's over now, and hopefully we didn't infect anyone. And we're crossing our fingers that it has run it's course at daycare and we don't get it back...

What a fun and busy end-of-summer shabang we've been having - well, other than eye infections. During the last week we: attended a birthday party, went to a concert at the State Fair, (thank you thank you thank you to Trishy for babysitting for us - sounds like the dog was way more work than the kids!) spent an entire day eating our way through the Fair and sitting in every new vehicle on every car lot there, took in a Twins game, and attended a mini-family reunion at my Gram's place.

And in between all that fun, Eve has started to climb on everything from the coffee table to the toilet to the dog. She's so pleased with herself. I'm glad someone is. :)

The first day of school is here - and while we aren't a part of the hoopla quite yet, Josie is thrilled, nonetheless. Because now there are lots of school buses to watch for on the ride to daycare, again. I saw a little girl walking to the bus stop with her mom this morning all decked out in her new shoes, Dora backpack and box of Kleenex tucked under her arm. Got a little teary-eyed thinking that will be us in not too long.