9pm

It's 9pm and I'm still awake!
Wow.

It was a busy day today.  We had people over for a big playgroup (with Rosary for the Mamas) -so there was some cooking and cleaning associated with that. 
Sam developed this funky rash and has been out of sorts.  I sent him to school, there was no fever or reason *not* so send him.  Until this little voice told me to pick him up and take him to the doctor this afternoon.  So we picked up Sam at 2pm and went. 
You got it. 
Strep Throat. 
Ugh.
At least he likes the medicine. 

I asked to have the prescription filled at Wegmans.  The coupons are usually pretty good - so I figured it would be worth the extra 10 minutes in the car. 
We got to the pharmacy and they had not received the script. 
Sam was decently miserable at this point, clinging to the cart. 
Ben was busily trying to kick Sam in the face for being too close.
Caroline was ordering them both to stop being turkeys.
Because it was naptime, Nate was soundly sleeping in the basket of the shopping cart. 

We are *that* family. 

"It's okay", said the girl behind the counter, "You can just do your shopping and come back."
"I have no shopping.  We'll sit here and wait."
I bit my tongue and did not point out that nothing besides Nate would fit in the cart and any shopping that could be done simply wasn't worth my sanity with one sick kid, one sleeping kid, one kid that should be sleeping and another kid that was trying to rule the world.  

So we waited.  And waited. 
The kids were okay.  Benjamin was rambunctious, Caroline was riling him up, so he made a lot of noise.  Sam laid down on a bench with his head on my lap and napped.   Nate slept curled up in the cart. 
We waited some more. 
I wracked my brain to see if there was anything I could pick up. 
Jim mentioned he wanted some granola bars -so we found some that had been discontinued for 50% off.  Score!  We picked up some night Pull-Ups.  We got a couple of pacifiers as Benjamin has hidden a few of his binkies a little too well. 
We piled all this on top of Nate who was still happily sleeping in the cart.

30 minutes later, the meds were ready. 

We got in line for the check out.  We didn't have too much, so we got in front of the self check out.  You know - the one in front of the milk and orange juice case for people just making a quick trip into the store.  The really busy case, now that it was 4:00.
Then I heard a dripping.  It got faster - like someone was pouring water near me.
I couldn't figure it out.
Someone stopped me and pointed out that the noise was coming from my cart.
 It was at that moment that Nate's bladder let go of all pretense and completely emptied on Danny Wegman's floor.
I'm talking HUGE puddle.

Awesome.

Another Mama took pity on me and got an employee to help. 
Caroline was mortified.  "Why does he have to pee all over Wegmans, Mom?  This is SO embarrassing!  Ugh!" 
A very young, very cute employee bent down to clean up the mess with  some paper towel.  I stopped her just in time, "Miss?  You're going to want to put on some gloves for this one."
Her eyes got big and she looked at me quizzically.  Then she understood.
I wasn't even phased.
Just another day in the Good Life.  :)

Thank goodness the Check Out line moved quickly.
Nate managed to tag a couple of the boxes of granola, but didn't do major damage. 
I am thankful he didn't wake up until we got to the car.  

We'll go to Safeway on Friday for milk, though. 
Just in case. 

Sunday Already? Again?

I have every intention of posting two or three times per week.
Then life with four children happens and at 8:45 when I cuddle into bed (I'm not ashamed), the only thing I can look at is the back of my eyelids.  Even when I couldn't run last week, I was up at 5 working out the parts that I could.  It's safe to say my arms and abdominals are also displeased with the roofing nail that made acquaintance with my first metatarsal.    Four C-sections and core stability are not mutually exclusive, but DANG, it's not easy to have them paired.   Oy.
Hopefully, resuming a moderate running schedule is possible this week.
There is a race in Georgetown calling my name.  Walking or crawling, the finish line will be crossed.

Nate is back.
Full force.
He's scared to eat crunchy foods, but he's running, jumping, shouting and has resumed his duties as Captain Chaos. 
His hearing is better.  I think he's overwhelmed at times by it.  When Shirley Temple passed away, we had some of the neighborhood kids over to honor her by having Shirley Temple flavored snowcones.   Of course, with 11 kids under the age of 10 in our living room,  it was loud.  Nate was overwhelmed and hiding behind a chair with his ears covered.  It was just too much for him.  He is doing things like that less and less.
He's also NOT snoring and seems to be sleeping better.  He hasn't complained about there being an "orangutan in his ear" (meaning his ear hurts).  This is excellent news - I hope it continues. 
I forgot how exhausting it is to chase him about.
That being said - I'm so glad he's back. 

Sam is  having a tough past couple weeks.  I think the snow days, Nate's surgery and the lack of routine have taken a toll on his brain.  School is getting more challenging (yikes) and I think the poor kid is just overwhelmed.  There is also a bully on the bus that is being dealt with.  All this resulted in Sam refusing to go to school on Thursday.  Normally we're up and ready to go out the door at 7:40.
Sam didn't get to school that day until 9:30.
It was a rough.
The good news is that days since then have been better.  Sam is very excited about the Science Fair this week.  We went to the Smithsonian today so Sam could stand in front of the Triceratops skeleton to get a picture in scale for his project.  We had lots of fun in the Devonian and Silurian Periods, too.  I know more than I never wanted to know about dinosaurs and other creatures that lived prior to the Mesozoic Era.  We spent time in the Ocean Exhibit for Nate and in the Origins of Life exhibit for CJ (David Koch or NOT).
We decided to take advantage of the beautiful  weather (until the next round of snow shows up).  We went and wandered around the Mall.
Who knew there was a skating rink in the National Sculpture Garden?  Caroline was decidedly unhappy when we said she could not skate today, so we hightailed it out of there.
We walked by the National Gallery of Art and all three verbal children requested to go in.  We had never been there before.  I'm sure you can appreciate our reticence with Nate around anything worth more than $5 that can be considered a priceless work of art...
IT WAS AWESOME.  The kids were well behaved. Perhaps they were intimidated by all the security guards - but whatever works - we'll take it!!!  We saw all sorts of things.  Monet, Manet, Degas ("That's the picture that Olivia likes, Mama!!!"), Picasso, Cassat, Renoir, Cezanne, and "The Dying Gaul".  The most interesting exhibit for us was The Byzantium Collection.  The artwork was fascinating, don't get me wrong...but the kids were fascinated because the exhibit was filled with nuns.  Lots of nuns.
I think they've watched a little too much of "The Sound of Music".
The kids were awestruck.  So we went up and introduced ourselves and said "Thank You" for all they were doing for the world.
It was pretty cool.  Many of the nuns were my age or younger.  I wasn't expecting that.  
Caroline has declared she wants to be a nun when she grows up.
Nate has, too.
We'll address that one later.  ;)
All in all...it was a good day.

Strange to think we'll have our first full week of school since the beginning of the year this week.
Wow.

Sam and Daddy at the Triceratops

The Urchins looking at a diorama of the Ordovician Period.  There is an orthocone near Nate's right elbow.  An 8 or 9 year old girl came up and called it a squid.  Nate gently corrected her.  I was surprised how nice he was about it.  She insisted it was a squid.  To which Nate replied, "NO. It's an orthocone!"  The girl was quite righteous about her answer.  I thought Nate was going to deck her. 

In the "Origins of Human Life" Exhibit.  Sam thought the cave paintings were pretty cool. 

The Four Turkeys

Sunday Already?

Again...what a week! 
The past few weeks have been full.  Emotionally, physically and every other ----ally word in between. 
Monday started out pretty normally...Nate was still very much in recovery mode and the Olders were starting school again - so I was looking forward to some down time. 
You know - time to catch up on laundry, clean the bathrooms, clean up the yard, grocery shop...all that fun stuff. 
And we were doing pretty good. 
We completed what we had to, did homework, worked on Science Fair projects and nursed Nate - who was still decidedly unhappy and mopey - tired, eating poorly and waking every 2-3 hours at night because of discomfort. 

Then came talk of snow. 
Here, south of the Mason Dixon Line, anything more than 6" shuts down the area for at least a day. 
I wasn't too alarmed, I'm used to snow.
Then, my Wonderful Weather Guy started to sound the alarm.  Fist time in 2 years that I've ever heard him mention "heavy snow". We started to prepare. 
I began to pick up the side yard from all the tree limbs that had come down.  I was just planning on putting them in a big pile to deal with after the snow melted.  But my neighbor spied what I was doing and volunteered to bring the limbs to the mulch pile for us.  HOW AWESOME!
In the midst of pulling limbs, I stepped on something sharp in my shoe - so sharp I felt it go up and into my foot.  Up as is way up.  Then I felt the blood pooling in the bottom of my shoe.  So I took a look.  Here's what I found (I had to save the monstrosity to photograph for posterity):

The binky puts in in perspective, huh?

A quick phone call to the doctor to ascertain that they dispensed tetanus shots (couldn't remember my last one and having read about John Roebling, I wasn't about to NOT get one).  And *poof* out of the blue, another neighbor shows up to help move branches.  She graciously took the boys as soon as we were done loading and I got down to the doctors office. 
My foot still hurts.  I haven't been able to run since Weds morning - I think the nail pierced the plantar fascia. 
Better heal quick.  I have a race in less than 3 weeks. 

And THEN came the snow. 
They weren't kidding. 

And after all that, Jim and I came down with the "Watson Flu".  Worst cold we've had in a while. 
Sudafed is a beautiful thing, indeed. 

Nate is slowly improving.  He is asking for food now and sleeping in 3 hour increments.  He was decently rambunctious last night at church - it was good to see him feeling good, but I had forgotten how exhausting corralling Nate is. 
Oy.
Benjamin is giving us a run for our money.  He is climbing everything.  He will pick up a stool or a chair or anything else he can move to use as a stepstool to get on a countertop.  His vocabulary is expanding.  It now includes "I wub ooo," which melts my heart. 

Today we just chilled and it was relaxing.  I think everyone is a bit out of sorts from being off-routine recently.  Sam is almost done with his Science Fair project and Caroline is well on her way with hers.  Sam didn't even fuss when it was time to do homework (he got to write about dinosaurs, which is probably why...but whatever - I'll take it).  The kids are now cozied up watching "Walking with Dinosaurs" .  We made banana bread, grocery shopped this morning, did a general pickup and just vegged out. 
Even God got a day of rest...right?

Winding Down

Sunday night.
Lunches made, clothes out, bags packed, schedule laid out for the week, laundry caught up...all ready to get back on track for next week!
Yeah, right.

Nate is okay.  He is fine for the two hours between his alternating tylenol/advil doses.  When one wears off - he's miserable.  He had some ice cream today and a couple glasses of chocolate milk - but that's it.  In the middle of dinner, he pushed his bowl of ice cream away and said, "Mama, I just need  you to snuggle with me,"  I took him over to the chair and held him so he could relax with me and his new buddy Chewy.  Within three minutes he was asleep.
The poor kid is just out of sorts. 

Nate, his new haircut and Chewy

The Tooth Fairy will also be visiting tonight.  We had to hold him down to yank the tooth out.  It was hanging by a thread and we were afraid he would swallow it.  Jim held his arms and I got the tooth - it came out with a "pop" and Sam (in the midst of a scream) said - "Wow - My tooth is out?!?!"

Pops made it home in one piece.  he has an awful cold, or the "Watson Flu" as my Mother prefers to call it, but says he'll come back again if we need him.  I think we could use the help and he could pursue another career going to houses and ironing and/or cleaning cupboards.
We are grateful for his loan from Nina.
Coming home from the hospital to clean laundry and the ironing done was great.  ;)  Almost worth Nate having his tonisils out (my opinion - NOT Nate's).  We are so appreciative of everyone's help.  It takes a lot of people other than a surgeon for Nate to get his tonsils out.  He is diggin' his Leapster - it keeps him calm, quiet and learning his letters and sounds...WIN/WIN/WIN!!!  Neighbors have helped so much.   Even Sam and Caroline (who have their moments of insane jealousy) have risen to the occasion and been helpful. 
Thank you. Thank you.  Thank you. 

What a Week!!!!

It's Friday, right?
We're sitting here, all together and watching "The Sound of Music".  It's one of the musicals where nobody gets points off if they sing along.

What a week.
After my last post, lots has happened.  Seems like we can hardly catch our breath here, sometimes.
And, in Walkersville fashion, people have come out of the woodwork to help.  We continue to hold the umbrella and help when we can.  We're learning to take help, too.

Sunday night we had a small snow storm.  There was no school Monday.   Homework finished, Science Fair projects started, Catechism homework completed, building a Snowman Alien and a snowball fight of EPIC proportions with the McNiesh Family made the day complete.
Tuesday was a pretty regular day.  Pops flew in a day early to make sure he was here in time for the Tonsil Festivities to start.  Our furnace was fixed.  Everyone did their homework.  My aweseome Weather Guy said to be concerned about an ice storm, but I wasn't.  I survived Rochester in 91.  Ice doesn't scare me.
We woke up Wednesday morning to our world covered in 1/2" of ice.
It was beautiful and terrible all at once.
We lost power early Weds morning.  By Thursday it was 48 degrees in the house.  Ben was wheezing pretty good - we couldn't neb him because his neb doesn't have a battery option.  We were getting nervous.  Pops was here to help us with Nate's upcoming surgery (remind you of a certain Worcester Storm in 08?) and was a huge help.  Thankfully, we got power back Thursday afternoon.  We lost some trees, had to use yet another snow day and there are some roads still closed and friends without power, but we made it through relatively unscathed.
I think Pops will sleep for a week when he gets home, though.
Courtesy of Pops:

Jim and I left with Nate at 6 Thursday morning to head into DC for his surgery.  The nurse had a chuckle after stating Nate was a "T &A with tubes" and I asked her if she had ever seen "A Chorus Line." 
Nate was a handful when we got in the hospital.  He didn't want to get into a gown.  He didn't want his vitals taken.  He didn't want to talk to anyone.  Thankfully a clown blowing bubbles showed up at the exact right time and got us through till his happy juice kicked in.
Nate got through surgery well.  Per the surgeon, his tonsils were "ginormous" and almost completely blocked his airway.  Nate also had a significant amount of fluid in his ears.  The doctor thinks his sleeping and hearing should be much improved in a few weeks.
I hope.
Coming out of anesthesia was an adventure.  The bugger managed to pull out his IV twice and it took three of us to keep him from tearing off his leads.  It took him a while, but he calmed down.
Unfortunately, that's when he realized he was spending the night and began screaming that he wanted to go home.  He kept that up, interspersed with coughing fits for the next few hours.  He wanted to go home until he realized that he was the *only* patient in the PACU and then began conspiring with the night nurses to ingest the entire ice cream supply of Washington DC.
He got pretty close.
We got about 4 hours of sleep and were cleared to come home early this morning.
The biggest challenge will be keeping Nate chill.  The surgeon suggested tying him to a tree for the next couple of weeks.  He wouldn't go as far to suggest Ny-Quil popsicles, but I *know* he would have, if he could.  I think the words that have come out of our mouths the most today have been, "Don't run, Nate!"  It will be an oft repeated phrase, I'm sure.
We are overwhelmed with the help we have received.  Pops was here, missing a major storm in Rochester (thanks, Nina). Grammy and Grampy sent Nate a great new game that he loves AND keeps him calm.   People have shown up with cards for Nate, dinner and books.  We appreciate it so much.   It takes a whole village to get Nate's tonsils out.
We're looking forward to laying low this weekend.

Rest is a beautiful thing.

The last 2 Red Wings to wear #5 were Cal Ripken, Jr and Uncle Matt!  What a great thrift store find!!!

Watching "The Sound of Music" with Pops.  I think he'll sleep well tonight. 

Saturday Night

It's Saturday night.
It's 8:50.
I'm in bed. 
I'm not ashamed. 
At ALL. 

What a week. 
A week that felt like the world was crashing down on those I love. 
So much pain and ugliness.  Some of it human made, some not.  All undeserved.
The only thing to do was hold the umbrella and shelter where possible. 
 
It is evident, more than ever, that we are exactly where we need to be. 
I am grateful to be surrounded by people always willing to hold my umbrella. 
I am honored to be able to help hold the umbrella for others. 


On a happier note, I composed this letter to Benjamin earlier in the week. 

Dearest Benjamin,
Thank you.
I found you this morning, in the midst of me trying to get 8 other things done when I wasn't paying enough attention to you.
You were sitting in the middle of the rug with all the toothbrushes and the contents of the tube of toothpaste that you had just emptied.
You were putting each toothbrush in your mouth and slowly, carefully savoring the taste. It was as though you were sampling a fine wine.
Then you saw me. You flashed the biggest grin. You were just so darn happy with yourself.
You're awesome.
Love, Mama

PS- It was cute and all, but I didn't appreciate the gel toothpaste on the rug. You do that again - you're cleaning it yourself. The toothbrush thing was pretty gross, too - even for me. I know the Hygiene Hypothesis is valid - but don't get cocky.