Too Funny...

Let's lighten things up a bit after that last post and enjoy some comedic relief from the mouths of my children...



As is common with an almost 3 yr old we are easing into potty training. The other day as Em sat on the pot things weren't....shall we say "working out"?....the way she wanted them to. She looked at me and said in frustration, "It's not working Mom....The batteries are out in  my butt!" Such a little lady!

One day I was watching a show on TLC about high risk pregnancies. Thomas came into the room as they were talking about doing an ultrasound to see if the baby was breach. He turned to me puzzled and asked, "They need to check if the baby is British?" 

So the other night we get in the car and I lost my patience with T after he had asked about something for the 5th or 6th time. There was definite tension in the car as the blow-up settled around us and silence ensued. From the backseat Emilia pipes up and says, "Thomas, I'm going to laugh at you...HAHAHA!" Then after a pause she morosely says, "Sorry, Thomas." Of course we all busted up laughing to which she responded, "Ummm...Mom? What happened?"

One night in Target near Christmas I had all three kids with me and was feeling extremely frazzled. As I was trying to breathe deeply in order to prevent either a blow-up or tears Thomas said excitedly, "Look! There's the Christmas trees!" Then without missing a beat Madison answered in a high squeaky voice, "That's not a Christmas tree boy...that's just an illusion!"

      Man I love that my kids have great senses of humor!




Loves!-M










      

Remembering...

Back when Em was around 3 or 4 weeks old she got a cold. The kind of cold where you could just see it in her her eyes that she didn't feel good at all. She looked so miserable as she tried to breathe through her little button nose that was all stuffed up and yet leaking like a faucet at the same time. When they're that young it's tough to really do much to make them feel better. She had gotten out of the hospital after having meningitis just a couple weeks earlier and I was feeling so bad for all that I had put her through and now she was miserable with a cold too! As I laid on the couch with her sleeping on my chest, hoping that if she was propped up that way it would help her rest more comfortably, Matt said to me, "She is so lucky to have you ya know. She loves you so much right now. No one else could comfort her right now like you can." In that moment I felt like the most important person in the world. I felt like no one could take my place and that I was a success as a mother. That moment was and still is sacred to me. I still think of what he said every so often and try to remind myself that even if I'm not a perfect mother, I am exactly what my kids need and no one can take my place in their lives...

Wheelchairs and Room Service...

The past two weeks have been full of viruses for our poor kids. Last week Thomas had the flu. It started two Sundays ago and went until the next Friday. It was strange. He would throw up at night along with having other...ahem...issues...and then the next day be fine. It went on like that until Thursday when I really started to worry that something more may be wrong when his stomach got very bloated looking and he was complaining that it was painful to stand or even sit up and the vomiting worsened. I could literally see in his face how much pain he was in and he fell asleep and was really hard to wake up. I had to carry him down the stairs and into the car which was no easy feat! Luckily Matt got home just as we were leaving and T and I headed to the pediatrician. He was miserable on the way there, getting sick twice, and couldn't even walk into the office on his own. The doctor poked and prodded and asked questions and told me that she suspected appendicitis or a bowel blockage and wanted me to take him to the ER at the Children's Hospital for x-rays and fluids as he was also somewhat dehydrated. So we made the almost 30 minute drive with poor T getting sick again in the backseat and I got him a wheelchair when we got to the ER entrance (by that point my back just could not carry him anymore!).

All of the pics were taken on my phone...not the best. Sorry!

Well let me tell you, the minute his backside hit that wheelchair he perked up almost instantly. We checked in and were told to wait and wait we did. Eventually we were put in an exam room....to wait some more. By this time Matt had arrived thanks to our amazing neighbors that came to hang out with the girls. The worst part about it was that we had had the carpets and couches cleaned that day so there was ONE couch they could sit on while they were there! Luckily Em was in bed by this time and Madison went to bed shortly after...but still!

Anyway, back at the hospital we waited....and waited...and waited. Finally the doctor came in and there was Thomas attempting wheelies in his new toy and scooting around the room. He had also made himself at home on the bed while watching a movie on the bed. The doctors poked around his stomach, asked us questions and declared that they suspected that it was a bad case of the flu...UM WHAT?! They let him have some water and crackers and an orange Popsicle and told us to walk around and see if it would induce pain at all. We walked laps and nothing happened. When we returned they had him pee in a cup and then we waited...and waited...and waited for those results which turned out to show that he was a little dehydrated (seriously? SERIOUSLY?!) but they didn't give him fluids and there was no infection. So we spent 5 hours (we got there at 8:30pm and got home around 1:30am) at the hospital all to find out that Thomas had the flu and there was nothing they could do! Oy vey! Not that I wanted him to have something seriously wrong like appendicitis but how frustrating! As we were walking out of the hospital he said to me, "Mom, that was the best day of my life!" He was asleep not even 5 minutes into the drive home. The next day he bragged to everybody about having his own wheelchair and being brought any kind of snack he wanted while watching a movie in bed!

Well, now Thomas has made a full recovery and misses his beloved wheelchair tremendously. He's asked if we can get him one for his birthday....ummmm no. Now that he is well of course someone else has to get sick and it happens to be Em with chronic diarrhea (for about a month now...I know, I know. I was waiting for her two yr. check up next week and trying to cure it myself!) and a yeast rash on her girlie parts (that only started a couple of days ago...) I know, too much information. 

Kids! Guess if it's not one of em' it's the other!  

       

IT'S NOT FAIR!!!

As you have noticed I have buttons on the left side of my blog for what I call my "Blog Babies". These are children who are disabled or sick in one way or another and without knowing them in person I have still fallen in love with them (there have been others who have passed away as well and they're button isn't there anymore.). The Hubster laughs at how attached I get to them. I have been known to sob while reading posts about these babies and when one dies I feel as though I lost someone close to me. The Hubster doesn't understand how I can care so much about a baby/family I have never met. I don't know. Maybe I get attached to people too easily or something. Maybe it's because I am a mother and I know how devastated I would be to watch my child suffer or have to let them go if they passed away.There have been some I have had to quit reading about because it was really getting me down. But there are a few, the ones on the left, that I can't let go of. Sometimes I feel angry. Angry that these beautiful children have to suffer. Most days after I check their blogs I just think, "IT'S NOT FAIR!!!! There is beautiful Gwendolyn who can't move anything but her fingers, who is trapped inside her little body due to SMA and will die much sooner than she should. There's darling Jonah who suffers through his skin blistering and peeling off and his Mom has to worry about G-tubes and dehydration when he gets a simple cold. Then there's Piper. What a doll! She's never lived at home. Reagan and Jake have to visit their baby in the hospital if they want to see her and she's almost 3! I cried everyday when my newborn was in the hospital for 10 days! There's blue-eyed Lucy who will go eventually go blind, and sweet Mason's family almost lost him because of a bad heart and then he started rejecting his new heart. Cute Karmindy might have to have another heart surgery this summer and Tiny Maggie has some mystery disease and is going downhill everyday because doctors can't figure out what she has. Sweet little Cora (The Macs) passed away after a 17 day battle with cancer before she was even a year old. Now her parents learn to live each day with her absence while loving her new baby brother.

I know this all sounds depressing and you are all wondering why I even read them. The other day when Gwendolyn almost died I asked myself the same thing. I thought about how, as silly as it seems, I will be devastated when she does go. To watch my own baby girl, close to Gwendolyn's age, run and jump and play is hard sometimes when I think of that beautiful little girl who's mind is just as sharp as Em's, but whose body is so broken. It breaks my heart and I thought that maybe I should just stop reading about such sad situations, then I wouldn't have to be there if/when the end comes for any of them. Then I thought of all the times I have thought of these kids when I am fed up with everything. I have learned so much through "getting to know" these families. They remind me each day to love my kids. To not take their health and abilities for granted. They remind me that it can all change so fast and that in a blink, life happens and I could have to live without one of my babies. They have taught me about courage and strength and finding joy despite the circumstance. I admire their parents so much for the tireless love and effort they have to put into each day just to keep their children entertained, or alive and sometimes, to go on without them.

Here's where there's a problem though and it's something I have struggled with most of my life (long before Blogland even existed). I want to know why. And I'm not just talking about my "Blog Babies". I'm talking about abused children around the world and orphans in Russia, and starving babies in Ethiopia and young girls raped and tortured in Africa and on and on and on... Why them and not my kids or me? How could a loving Father in Heaven allow them to suffer? How could he take these beautiful babies away from families who love them so much after they've already had to watch them decline day by day? How could he allow His children to suffer and starve?

Although this post is in no way meant to be religious I cannot help but bring God into it, seeing as I believe in Him, and thereby my personal beliefs. I am a Latter-Day Saint (Mormon). I believe in the Plan of Salvation. I believe we were sent to earth to get a body and be tested and return to Him. I believe that God loves His children and that families can be together forever, even in the life after this one. I believe in free agency and I believe in miracles. But I still don't understand why, or maybe how, He can let them suffer. I know His own Son suffered more than any of us ever could.  I know that there can be no joy without suffering and I know that miracles can only come when there is faith and situations where a miracle is needed. I know all of this in my head, but my heart still wonders why. Honestly, maybe I'll never really understand on a deep level until I meet my Maker. I'm sure it's one of those things I will just have to have faith about and let my very human mind trust in His higher knowledge. I just wish that all of these families could get their miracles and that none of them would have to suffer in order for those around them to have their lives touched because of them.

I'm probably not making a whole lot of sense. I know my posts are usually lighter and more amusing so I hope I didn't bore you with all my "serious talk" today. If any of you have any enlightenment for me on this subject I'd love to hear it.

Thanks.

Oh the carnage! (Warning:Too much information)

So the whole "I need to attend my church meetings" resolution got off to a bad start. Saturday night The Hubster took The Pirate to a snowmobile motocross exhibition at the Rio Tinto stadium. The Pirate apparently consumed 2 hot dogs while there and had the time of his life! He actually informed me that it was the "best day of his life!" They got home about 10:45 that night and The Pirate woke me up about 6:00 the next morning saying he had thrown up in the bathroom. "Yeah" I thought, "At least he got to the bathroom instead of all over his bed." I get up and realize he should have said he threw up all over the bathroom! (I know-TMI) Good Morning to me!!!! So I wiped it all up got him situated down stairs with a bowl then sat, half asleep on the couch with his head on my lap (as he insisted it needed to be for optimal comfort). He threw up once more then decided to go lay by himself thereby freeing me to go back to bed. I remember The Hubster leaving for church (he looked really good that day) and then The Princess waking me up around 9:00 to ask if she could get the baby out of her crib. I think I mumbled, "Sure, if you want to take care of her." (Woohoo! And the 'Stellar Mom Award' goes to.....Your's Truly!) I finally got out of bed and went down stairs around 10:30 and The Princess had fed The Pea and everyone was happy. There is definitely something to be said for having kids so far apart! What a sweetheart The Princess was! She is such a great big sister and a pretty darn good babysitter too! Well, this long story is just to say...I didn't make it to church.

Oh and FYI-I'm pretty sure The Pirate had a bit of food poisoning from his nutritious dinner of animal byproducts slathered with ketchup in a bun. He ate normally for the rest of the day and went to school today. Which means....yeah me! Since it doesn't appear to be the flu, I won't have to expect a week or two of cleaning up any more vomitrocious messes. I know- again- TOO MUCH INFORMATION!