Trevin's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day...

When Trevin got home from school the other day he presented me with normal things, some homework that needed to be done, a paper to be signed, etc. He then proceeded to tell me something very out of the ordinary. "Mom, I have a piece of paper in my ear."

"Excuse me?"

"There is a piece of paper stuck in my ear."


"And how did this piece of paper get stuck in your ear?"

"I put it there."

..."WHY?"

"...cause I was bored."

u-huh. See I'm the type of mom who believes in scaring her kids straight. I have shown Trevin pictures of lung cancer when talking about smoking. I have shown him fried neurons in the brain after drug use. I've shown pictures of liver damage when discussing drinking and sever head wounds when talking to him about wearing helmets...I'm that mom. But I guess I was a little late on the whole don't stick things in your orafices. I know I had told him this but this day was the day I had to break out the full picture of the ear and expain the damage that can be done there. When I had him thouroughly convinced that he'd be deaf by the end because of this I figured I had proven my point.

Now, I know some stuff so I figured that I should be able to get this piece of paper out. I have suction instruments and enough bodily knowledge to be adequate in most things like this. But I couldn't get it. This bit of paper had made it's way too deep in for me to get it out. So we called the doctors office. This is when Trevin really got that this was a bonehead move.


After the tears of embarassment subsided Trevin resigned himself to losing the rest of his afternoon to that of a doctors office. Just having to deal with this little dilema is enough for a 9 year old but the fun didn't stop there. When one of his friends came over to ask him to play Trevin somehow forgot how to open doors and slammed the front door into his forehead leaving him with a nice goose-egg seen here. You can see the protrudence on the right side of his forehead and still today is has some bruising coloring to it but the swelling is finally down.

You can see how much a good day this was going to be for us. When we made it to the doctors office the doc glanced into the ear and easily saw the paper lodged in there and announced that he'd need to get his alligator clips to reach it properly. This terrified Trevin. Made me giggle a little. Now the reason you are getting pictures of all this is simple. The day before I had advised my lovely neighbor to remember that having kids is just something we have to take in stride (because her son had just done something a bit mischievious) and keep a sense of humor about it. Karma kicked my butt with that little nugget of advice but because I had said it only 24 or hours previous to this it was only fair that instead of seeing this as a big pain I grabbed my camera and decided to document this trip fully so I could humilate Trevin in later years. After all, isn't that part of the joy of parenting?


This is the spread of "cool tools" that the doctor got laid out. I think it was more for dramtic effect since he only really used some of them but that piece of white paper that has bent sciccors is the alligator clamp that he used to remove the piece of paper from Trevin's ear. After he got it out he looked in the ear again and announced there was something else in his ear as well...which he couldn't reach and it would need to be irrigated out. So the nurse came in for that part and got Trevin all prepped.

Trevin did really well with this. At first he was completely freaked thinking that that was a shot he would have to recieve but when she explained that it was just water he was more approachable. I think she irrigated 4 times and kept laughing that I was taking pictures about it. I told her I needed something for his wedding center pieces.

See that little thing floating in the ear cup? That would be a piece of eraser. Trevin swears he has no idea how it got in there with the paper...(Sorry I didn't get a picture of the paper the doc threw it away too quick). THEN the doc comes in to check his ear again and there is a huge piece of wax that is nowpushed up and scratched the membrane. Seriously, if there weren't witnesses I would have started beating Trevin right there. SO then, we get to have Trevin lie down and have oil put in his ear to break up the wax and irrigate a few more times. I didn't take a pic of the wax because, honestly...gross. So yeah, once we got those 3 THINGS out of Trevin's ear the doc pronounced him ok but the scratches and irritation was very apparent and now Trevin must lay each night with ointment in his ear for a few minutes to help heal the membrane....kids, I tell ya. The fun never ends.

Hair cuts

Just a few snaps of the boys hair cuts that they got. Trevin was SO shaggy I couldn't stand it anymore and Garrin was really getting outta control too so we just decided to buzz both of their heads. With Trevin I am used to it but it made my little guy look so different to me...he doesn't look all "little" anymore...oh well, just hair right?


This is Garrin before

And Garrin after


And one of the buzzed boys together...

ARGH

I totally have an AWESOME post that I can't get up because my lame camera has decided to stop functioning for some reason. I promise once I beat this digital equipment in line you will see some super fun blogging.

In the mean-time here are the "fun facts" of my life right now...

I'm done with work...almost. I get to train the girl taking over my patients next week so that whole "no more working thing" isn't quite true.

I am seriously crippled. On Friday I must have overdone my last day because walking is now a thing of the past. My right hip is out or something and I cannot for the life of me get it back to a position that is even semi-comfortable some of the time. Seriously, I'm a sad big preggo woman now wobbling around from my bed to couch pretending to be of some use to someone. I'm so pathetic. Does anyone know a massure that is specialized in the severely pregnant?

Also, since I am so lame on the posting thing if you want to see some pics of me preggo check out my sister's blog who has some great photos of me and the boys.

Lastly, Sunday marks Above Average Joe's and I anniversary. FOUR YEARS baby. That's one year more than my last marriage (ka-ching!) and only one year more to beat his last record! It's on, baby. Since I am so broken right now and he just broke (cause he isn't working) I'm thinking this "fruit" anniversary will be celebrated by me slicing up a nice apple for him and maybe he'll make me a nice smoothy in the morning. Yeah, baby. That's how you keep the magic ALIVE people!

Dr. appt #4672

At least, that's what it feels like...

So we went to the dr this morning to do all the doctorly things that happen when you are "with child". Garrin FREAKED OUT when the doctor came in the room. I have never seen him react like that. He's been with me to almost all my appt's and hasn't had an appt for himself in months. He even had Above Average Joe holding him the whole time. It was a little funny though whenever the dr would leave he'd calm but when he'd come back in the screaming started again. Poor doctor.

So here's all the stats that you may or may not be interested in. I am 1 cm dialated but the cervix is still thick so I am allowed to finish this week of work. I am having contractions here and there, but nothing I can't stop if I let myself relax. The doctor did say that the more pregnancies you have the harder and sooner the contractions come. Isn't that just the most soothing thing to hear? The baby is head down (thank goodness) and my blood pressure is up. This concerns my doc, but not me too much. My bp has always gone up when I am close to the end of pregnancies so I just see it as a sign instead of a red flag but because of that I'll be in the doc's office once a week now until I give birth. The doc did also say that the baby is pretty low which I already knew but it only magnified my mild anxiety attacks about my water breaking when I'm trying to help a patient and then having to get that patient out of their wheelchair so I can use it. Seriously, I have this odd feeling that will happen and how cruel is that?

I want to thank everyone who has been so interested in my well-being and my families. We feel so loved right now and it renews our hope that we are watched over by some of the sweetest angels out there. I promise I will keep everyone posted as this gets to it's climactic ending.

Stupid, snowy spring break.

Yes, the weather has been quite the irritant for me this week. I needed a nice sunny week for my 9 year old and toddler to play outside in. Instead we wake up to snow. And NOT just snow...SNOW. So we had to be inventive...and spend money. We went to Kangaroo Zoo one day and I must say, fun place. I forgot my camera though so I have no photographic evidence that I actually do stuff with my kids. It was really cute to see Trevin hauling Garrin up all the ladders to do all the "big" slides with him because he was convinced that he wanted to. Turns out, Trevin was right. Garrin actually figured out how to climb those blow up ladders himself on some of them.

The funny story for the day at Kangaroo Zoo was witnessed by my niece and reported back to me. Trevin was helping Garrin up the stairs of one of these slides and some other little kid got impatient and "butted" in front of them. Trevin, being the awesome older brother he is automatically took his brothers defense and said, "just because he's a baby doesn't mean you should butt in front of him!" Ah, my son. The righter of all wrongs and injustices in the kid world.

Now that the weather is finally starting to look better we plan on taking the boys to play a little tennis this weekend (Trevin's dad is out of town for a few weeks so we actually get him a couple full weekends!) My sister will be in town and we'll be getting together with more family as my father just had another birthday. I'm pretty excited for a normal familyish weekend.
Next week will be my last week working and Joe is FINALLY getting some responses from all the resumes he has been sending out. So the sunny outcast may be spreading into regular life as well.

One of "THOSE" nights...

I had the opportunity to attend a lovely little baby shower last night (Hi Linds!) wherein I saw so many cute baby girl things that it almost, maybe, a little, kind of made me think that having a girl would be fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the time out of the house and surrounded by other ladies who had no problem sharing in my utter detestment of my own body and my whiny attitude about this rapidly growing fetus that continues to kick the crap out of me. I very much enjoyed the conversations and the companionship.

When I got home though...

Above Average Joe waited until I got up the stairs but as soon as he had eye contact he looked at me and said "Do you know what *YOUR* son did?"

Ah, *MY* son. I know that this means that it was good. You never give up your part of parentalship unless it's really worthy so I sat down next to him and asked him what had happened. BUT, first I did clarify "is it a horror that I will be appauled by or will I weep with hilarity because it didn't happen to me?"
"A little of both, I think," responded my hubby.
And I braced myself.

Just so you have the scene in your mind. "The Son" was played by Garrin tonight. Trevin has had plenty of staring roles but tonight it was the little one. Above Average Joe had put Garrin to bed in his pack n' play, where he has slept since he was born. Garrin has ALWAYS been a great sleeper (I know what a blessing it is). Trevin and Above Average Joe were playing the Wii when all of this went down. *curtain up*
...as narrated by *The Father*
"*YOUR SON* had been put down for bed and about a half an hour later there were some noises coming from the room. Then I heard him squeeling like he was in distress so I went into the room just in time to see our little boy who had somehow figured out how to climb the side of his current bed and had himself high centered on the bar. As I entered the room Garrin made the final fall to the ground and squealed with delight."

Being the responsible parent that Joe is he picked him up and put him back in the pack n' play and didn't even make it to the door before Garrin had made it out again and actually ran past him to go into the front room where all the playing was happening. This is the point where Joe tells me that he laughed until he cried.

Apparently, Above Average Joe did succeed in getting Garrin back to sleep relatively soon thereafter and into his pack n' play. Having heard this story the parents of *THE BOY* decided that the next morning we would have to retire the pack n' play and actually start the transition to the bed. I went to bed and Above Average Joe stayed up and "geeked out" (read: played xbox360) for a few hours. I woke at about 3:30 this morning hearing the music to Curious George in my room and turned to see Garrin in his dads arms who had obviously been trying to soothe the little one back to sleep....again. I took over from there. I went into the boys room where Trevin was sound asleep on the bed (we have bunk beds) and I laid Garrin down next to him hoping that he'd just fall asleep next to his brother...not so much. An hour and a half later after being locked in the boys room waiting for Garrin to be tired enough to just fall asleep SOMEWHERE I was able to go back to bed...for an hour.

It's true folks. I witnessed it myself. The pack n' play is now useless because our little acrobat can so swiftly and gracefully get himself out of it that there is no reason for it to be there anymore. This morning we packed it up (until the next little one comes) and Garrin is currently napping on the bottom bunk. I am poised for a very long next few days/nights with this new situation. Feel free to chime in with any words of wisdom because I haven't had to deal with this in SO MANY YEARS that I'm not even sure I should be trusted with such a job. Hopefully, once Garrin gets the idea that the bed is now his he will return ever so angelically to his peaceful sleep routine of simply giving kisses and laying down with his blanket and binki to fall asleep all on his own...at least, that's what *MY* son would do.

I should be studied...

Not that I am egotistical enough to believe that I am a phenomenom of some sort but somewhere in the Abnormal Psych classes I am hoping that my dreams are evaluated so that everyone else can feel completely sane. I know that with pregnancy and all the fun hormones that scorch through our veins it is somewhat typical for your already fragile psyche to take some hits, but dood. I need a night of actual rest and without panic attack.

I just find it so odd because I am pretty level headed. I've never had panic attacks in real life and am pretty cool under pressure (which is why nursing fits in so well with me). But when I sleep now (which is in shifts at night thanks to all the joint pain that happens from this kid getting bigger) I have the most uncanny dreams. I have dreamt that Joe named this baby without any consent from me (because I was DRUGGED) a name that I would NEVER approve. I have dreamed that I had the baby in an ambulance...by my mother...? Last night I had the falling dream but I had the baby in my arms so it was SO TERRIFYING. Seriously, it's just crazy. I can totally handle the sleep depervation that comes with a newborn. There is a sense of calm that resides in me during those first few months because I know it will end and we're just getting used to each other. The kid cries, we change it, feed it, cuddle it...move on. The annoyance at my own body these days is getting really old. I want to be comfortable in my own skin. I want to not be kicked from the inside in ways that stops me dead in my tracks. I want to sleep on whichever side I deem worthy!!! I want my hands to not go numb when I'm not even sleeping on them...and really, I just detest that I have to waddle these days. I know this will all be over soon and I look forward to that but if you can't complain to the internet then who can we trust these days?

In my wallowing of self pity there has been many joyous events here that shouldn't be overlooked. Garrin's vocabulary is increasing by the day and it's just so darn adorable. Trevin's new constant phrase is "yes, mom" which just warms my heart everytime I hear it. He still tunes me out occasionally, but most the time it's a "yes, mom". Not sure why or when he picked it up, but I'm hoping it stays. Above Average Joe is still jobless and it's honestly looking pretty bleak but we are hopeful. Now if we could just get this stupid snow to stop falling so we can go back outside and play catch with the boys...that would be great. We have started a new thing in the evenings though that really makes all of us happy. We turn off the tv we turn on a fun cd and we dance as a family. It is so fun. Garrin moves to the music, Trevin has let me teach him the waltz and occasionally the boys will even let me and Joe dance together...It's a great thing, I suggest you all try it.

Yeah, see how all over that post was? THAT'S why I should be studied...if only for the humor of those around.