Texas snow

This post was inspired by Emily.

Here in Texas we don't get snow very often. It's a very sore subject with Brian. It almost bothers him enough to make him pack up our house and move back to Oklahoma. Well as you can imagine, the snow storm that hit Oklahoma over Christmas really twisted the dagger in his heart.

But wait. What did the weatherman say? Snow in Dallas? Yes! A very brief blizzard blew through on Christmas Eve and we were all excited.

Then it didn't stick. And Brian resumed cursing Texas under his breath.

But wait. As we woke up Christmas morning what did we see? It was a Christmas miracle! Uncle Naynay brought a load of snow from Tulsa on his way here!

And you better believe Brian made the most of it.

In the end, Silas got a little teaser of what other more fortunate children experienced this Christmas. But he really enjoyed the truck bed of snow. He actually got pretty upset when we told him it was time to go inside and open presents. As he put it, "Dada, can I pway in hhnow more pweeeeeeeeeese?" I can't imagine what he would do if he saw real snow on the ground.

Christmas story #1

We've had a great Christmas break so far!

First I wanted to share with you my photo shoot experience with Mash.

I think she looks like a baby doll in this picture.

Here are some other good ones. Brian's aunt Stephanie got her this dress. I love it.

And now I would like to share a formula we've discovered lately.
It goes like this:

nice outfit + neglect = natural constipation remedy

See it for yourself.

nice outfit

neglect

bm

(and yes, it's dripping down Brian's arm)

Sorry Brent and Sherri.

Here's the aftermath.

 

Thanks to Sherri the dress was saved.

And I promise the rest of the Christmas stories will not involve bathroom happenings.

Initiation

There comes a time with every child when both of you somehow get covered in poop during a diaper change. It happened today. I have to say Mash's was pretty mild and actually kinda cute. But here's your warning: if you can't handle looking at baby poop, stop reading now.

I felt like Macgyver. My predicament was that her outfit was full of poop and I had to get it off of her to get her clean but also keep from getting poop all over the carpet. Before I got the towel I had these items to work with:

Mom's Christmas stocking

Tennis shoes

Train whistle

Small remnant of wrapping paper

As you can see I went with the wrapping paper. The stocking was a close second.

(can you find the wrapping paper wedgie?)

When things got too out of hand I bit the bullet and bathed the child.

 That's what I get for trying to change a poopie diaper on the floor while chatting with my brother on Facebook. Kinda like texting and driving.
It's dangerous.

Our almost anniversary celebration

It's that time of year. Our anniversary.  
I love celebrating our anniversary.

I think it's because I kinda like my husband.

Yesterday we had the WHOLE day to ourselves. My mom offered to watch the little squirts. Priceless.

First we went to Chipotle for lunch. Talk about starting things off right.

Then a movie with smuggled peanut butter M&M's and cokes. We splurged and bought the popcorn in house. We saw Invictus. It was pretty good although we wanted more Nelson Mandela and less rugby. Still good.

Then ToysRUs for a little bit of Christmas shopping. MISTAKE. Crowds and mean people = bad anniversary activity. So we bolted.

Saltgrass for dinner. And guess what. We had a $50 gift card! (courtesy of my loving and thoughtful sister) So we ordered our own meals! And Brian ordered a real steak instead of the "steak medalions" which I like to call "5 bites o steak." And we even got a dessert. When Brian got the dessert he asked if he should eat the cherry seducively. I said I think you mean seductively and the answer is YES! I knew I could burn off at least 100 calories of the 5,000 I just ate by the laughter that would induce. But then he said no. He's mean like that.

We had a great day. A lot of laughing and a little bit of serious reflection over the past year and how our marriage has changed and grown. Tuesday, on our actual anniversary, we will do our treasured yearly tradition. More on that to come.

And to finish this post I would like to take you on a trip down memory lane back our first apartment. Where we began our journey together. To give you an idea of how small this place was, I could vacuum the whole apartment without changing outlets. Those were simpler times.

The video is short and choppy compliments of my first digital camera which weighed about 5 pounds. And the song was one of our favorites during that time.

Things to watch for: Brian is watching Armageddon. There's a phone hanging on the wall. Remember land lines? There's no dishwasher in the kitchen. Eli Reutlinger's birth announcement is on the fridge. Excuse me while I go get a tissue.

2:00

Every day around 2:00p.m. this happens.

Then this happens.

 Then I close the door and do this at the top of the stairs.

Intussusception

This is a heavy one. You've been warned.

       The other day I read Silas' baby calendar and ran accross something I hadn't thought about in a long time. When he was 6 months old, he had Intussusception. It's a subject that's a bit upsetting to revisit but it has been on my mind and has sparked something in me. For those of you that don't know the story, I'll fill you in.

       One day, it was a Thursday morning, Silas started throwing up every few hours. He couldn't keep anything down so we did the usual: clear liquids to try and keep him hydrated. By Friday evening I called the nurse and to my surprise she told me to take him right away to the ER and to go straight to Children's Hospital in Dallas. So we did. He was admitted after they couldn't find the cause of the vomitting (no fever, etc.). Here are some pics taken before things got much worse.

       He continued to throw up more frequently (eventually became dry heaving with a little bit of green stuff every 20 minutes). Long story short, the doctors and nurses kept saying it's probably just a stomach virus and we'll keep him on IV fluids until it runs its course. Meanwhile my mom, who is a nurse, repeatedly asked the nurses and doctors to check for some kind of obstruction because his vomit looked like bile, which is just straight stomach acid, meaning nothing is getting through. We were told over and over that it was just a virus, don't worry.

      We waited longer, he kept throwing up. We, mainly my mom, argued with doctors and nurses over vomit colors and smells. My mom was convinced it was bile, indicating an obstruction. Doctors and nurses were convinced it was a virus and therefore felt compelled to take extremely long amounts of time to get various results or listen to anything my mom had to say. Me and Brian worried. Alot. We felt helpless as Silas continued to fade away, waking only to violenty heave and colapse again.

       By Sunday morning Silas was almost completely unresponsive. He just didn't have anything left. He was a limp noodle when we carried him to get x-rays redone at my mom's urging. When the x-ray results came in, things started happening. Surgeons and some other important doctors had a meeting and said they thought it could be intussusception, where your intestines sort of act like a telescope and block the path, and they needed to go forward with a barium enema.

       It was the hardest thing I've ever had to experience as a mom. The procedure took quite a while and I don't like going into the details but it boiled down to having to decide do I stand there helpless while my baby screams and pleads with me with his eyes from 20 feet away or do I run out of the room because my heart can't take it and abandon him. I did a little of both.

       But after what seemed like an eternity, we had good news. The enema worked. It blew enough air into his intestines that they popped back out to normal. Soon a constant flow of doctors and surgeons were coming by our room to congratulate us that they (and by "they" I'm sure they were referring to my mom) caught it in time. When we finally got home I had a complete meltdown when I read that most children die within the time period Silas had it.

       This was something that changed me as a mother. And looking back, I realize that I don't like the way it changed me. It made me scared of any type of illness. It made me very untrusting of doctors. It made me overprotective. Living in fear is very oppressive.

       But recently I've been trying to turn the tide. I want to be thankful for every moment I have with my children and not live in desperation that I have to protect them from every danger. I want to create an environment of peace and strength for my family. I want more confidence that no matter what God will not abandon us and will get us through it. And I want to be better at remembering that this life is not all there is. We've got alot to look forward to.   

We needs it

Meet our little Frodo.

And for those of you who have never seen Lord of the Rings, I included something at the end for you.

Five Thanksgivings and a fingernail

Well folks, we survived the  
Thanksgiving Tour '09.

It was a crazy week. This year we ate a grand total of five thanksgiving dinners. I set myself back a little on losing the baby weight but I'm alright with that. What's the use of losing weight if you can't enjoy life along the way. Right? Right.

So, the first stop was The Parkers the weekend before Thanksgiving. We hung out and cooked a big meal. We watched Dennis the Menace. Funny movie. My kind of movie these days. I can't handle any movies with upsetting parts. I'm either getting old or spending too much time with people under the age of 3.

Then Thursday we celebrated with the Millers. We ate a big meal and played with the kids. Brian on the other hand spent most of the day sleeping off his potent cocktail of Benadryl, turkey, and a big piece of Kahlua cake. He wasn't upset though because this allowed him to play video games into the wee hours of the night.

The third dinner was at Grandma Kaye's (Brian's grandma). The food was delicious (let's just say Pioneer Pies from OKCity) and it was really good to see family we dont get to see that often.

The fourth dinner was Friday night at Kristin's. Once again the food was delicious. We played Cranium for a while but my team pulled so far ahead that we just quit out of boredom.

Then the grand finale was Saturday back home at Mema's house. Man. There are alot of kids in this family. Flag football, then food, then the chaos began.

Here's a little glimpse of what was happening all around us.

Toddlers four-wheelin' were just the beginning. Taya was doing flips, twins were escaping and building stuff in the garage. Shannon eventually found Silas face down in the carpet asleep with a Hot Wheel car in his hand. He was pooped (and still is) after all the traveling.

But all in all it was a good excitement filled little Thanksgiving break!

So what's this talk about a fingernail? Well let me tell you. When we were at Kristin's house I was in the guest room feeding Madison when I heard roaring screams and laughter coming from the living room. It was so loud it scared Madison. So when I came out and asked what the commotion was all about, Nathan was standing there eating a piece of apple pie with a sour look on his face.

Brian explained what happened: He smashed his finger a while back (shocking huh?) and the nail was finally ready to come off. But after he peeled it off and sat there admiring his work, Silas decided to make a break for the front door to go hang out with the big blow up Santa outside. Brian had to quickly dispose of the nail so he set it down on a dirty paper plate Christina had just used to eat apple pie. Enter Nathan. Being the frugal man he is, he decided to just add his pie to Christina's plate. While he was savoring the sweet buttery goodness, he noticed he got a really hard chunk of crust. He tried and tried to bite through it but he finally pulled it out of his mouth. Yep. It was Brian's beautiful, slightly bloody fingernail. Poor Nathan.

And that my friends sums up our Thanksgiving festivities!

I forgot to take pictures during the tour. But here are some cute ones from a photo shoot the girls did at Kristin's house.

 

 

Something to chew on

Lately I've been pondering a new insight into myself as a wife. God teaches me these little nuggets from time to time. The last nugget was pretty hard to swallow but that's another story for another time.

Right now the nugget is this:

To hold in a gripe is beautiful.

Stopping negative words before they come out of my mouth is more than
simply creating an absence of something.
It's creating something beautiful.

How does this play out in real life? Here's an example. The other day Brian poured my drink at dinner. (Small tangent: I always mix orange juice and V8 splash for my drink at dinner. Brian calls it my cocktail. It tastes delicious and I let myself believe I'm getting in my veggies) When he set the glass down on the table I noticed that there was alot of V8 splash and not much orange juice when usually I make it the other way around. I was just about to point this out (the guy needs to know for future reference right?) when I remembered the nugget. As I said thank you and watched my husband, a smile was growing on my insides. Brian may have just heard silence but there was beauty in that silence.

Though I rarely even struggle with this issue (right Brian?), it's nice to know that I'm not just stuffing in a thought that I wanted to blurt out. It's actually kind of fun to stay quiet and enjoy the moment of silence like a piece of chocolate. 

I really like these nuggets.
God teaching me and growing me is one of my favorite things. 

New developments

She eats feet. 

He sings. 

Somebody's watching me

Last night I had a sweet moment with Mash. I was going through our usual nighttime routine where I lay her down and sit down on the foot stool of the glider and rest my forehead against the crib and watch her through the little slit between the bed rail and the top of the bumper. I only watch for a little bit and then I relax and read my book by the dim light of the night light while she puts herself to sleep. I'm too lazy to just come down stairs because she might lose her pacifier and I would have to use my leg muscles that have been on hiatus for about 6 years to go back up the stairs. So every night I read a few pages in my book, which right now is "Angela's Ashes," until she falls asleep. 

Last night I laid her down and looked down to take my seat. When I got settled and leaned forward to look through my little peep hole this is what I saw:

Her little eyes were watching me back through the little slit. I gasped and then started choking on laughter. I tried so hard to keep it in because I knew she was overtired and was oh so close to falling asleep. But I just couldn't.

And I started giggling.

And then she started giggling.

And then we both lost it.

After the laughter finally died down, she smiled at me with her little chipmunk cheeks for a few minutes and then slowly her eyes started closing and she was peacefully sleeping.

I can't even begin to put into words how much joy this little girl brings me. 

Where the magic happens

Last night I woke up to a whisper in my ear, "Don't      Move."  After a small coronary, I turn my head to the right to see Brian sitting up next to me in an awkward position. The blood rushes through to my fingertips and I whisper back, "What is it?!"

He says in a deep sleepy voice, "I caught a wasp." And I look down to see that his hands are cupped and holding the wasp down against the bed. Then Brian says, "I can't find anything to kill it with." So I jump out of bed to get a shoe when Brian changes his mind. "Oh wait a minute. I think I'm dreaming." (thoughtful pause) "Yes. I'm dreaming." And he lays down and drifts back to peaceful sleep.

It's on nights like these as I stare at the ceiling vacillating between chuckling and fuming with anger at the fact that I can't sleep longer than one hour intervals between two wakeful children and Brian snoring or waking me to help him kill imaginary bugs, or waking me to wave my arm around while frantically trying to convince me that it's the baby and I'm smashing it, or punching me in the face because he's on a mission with Jackie Chan that I have to remind myself of a bit of encouragement Brian told me years ago: I can sleep when I die.

Time to wax

The following video clip pains me to make public. But I gotta.

Here's the setup. Silas has a chapped lip. I call him my little geisha. Whenever he feels it, he thinks he has a mustache and I wanted to capture that cuteness on film. I got more than I bargained for.

Big day

There's nothing like it.
The excitement.
The fear.
The anticipation.
The pain.
The pushing.
The first touch.
The exhaustion.
The sleep deprivation.
The new love. 

Yesterday my brother and sister-in-law (mainly my sister-in-law) did it.
Little baby Jack was born. And he's a cutie.

 

Changes

Today was one of those bittersweet moments of motherhood. At breakfast, Mash ate solid food for the first time. It may seem small but it feels big.

It's a little whisper in my soul that tells me one day these moments will be distant memories. Moments when I notice she's stopped eating and look down to see she just took a break to smile at me.

Moments when she wakes up for her 5 a.m. feeding and her little arms are cold and she snuggles them against me while I sleep and she eats.

Moments when life with her is pretty simple: cuddle and feed every three hours and watch her smile anytime you look in her direction.

But there's another whisper in my soul that reminds me to focus on the joy it is to watch her grow older rather than regretting it happening. It reminds me to be glad about the future and to count it a privilege to be a part of her life even when it's hard to let go of the good things as they pass.

Trick or treating

On Saturday night the local Sesame Street gang velcroed their converse and hit the streets. The culprits were Cookie Monster, Ovahita (for the avid Sesame Street watchers), Elmo and Big Bird.

Here's the whole crew.

Isn't bat girl cute?

 They had lots of fun running around, riding the hay ride behind the tractor, and getting lots of candy.

It sure was fun to watch. Big Bird couldn't see past his beak, Elmo was acting like someone might have slipped crack into his dinner of hot dogs and carrots, and Cookie Monster had a slight case of encephalitis.

Here we are having fun with Mash's costume before the big night.