Are we there yet?!

We hit the road tonight.  We are heading to Iowa to visit, "Damma & Papa Dyst-a".  And again, the kiddo couldn't be more excited.  He's been talking about it all the time since we told him we were going to their house.  It was so funny this morning...Marc was asking him what he was going to do today and Andrew started listing the usual breakfast, school, etc.. then it was like all of a sudden the light bulb clicked with huge gasp... "Damma & Papa Dyst-a house!".  It was so funny.

 

All morning he kept asking if we were going 'now?'.  Going to see Papa Dystwa now?  So I had to keep telling him we had to get coffee (my last freebie *sniff*), then come home, then go to school, then come home, then a loooong car ride THEN we are there.    I feel bad for my in-laws.  They had a crazy week of travel to and from NY for a conference.  And due to the flooding, it took them 28 hours just to fly home.  And now because of the time change and Andrew being an early riser and his sheer excitement...I have a feeling he is going to want to wake them up first thing each morning.  

 

On an AJ note:  I think the kid is going through a growth spurt.  Y'know how when you've been away from someone a while you notice changes easier than if you see them everyday?  Well, I see AJ everyday and everyday lately I think he grows a chunk. His appetite and sleeping have gone up noticeably in the last day or two as well.  He is in 6-9 mo. jammies and isn't even 3 mo. old yet.  But man, is he a cutie.  This will be he first trip to Iowa.

 

So I've spent the last couple days trying to pack up and get ready for the trip.  It's been pretty busy.  And if I don't write again until we get back sometime Tuesday, have a wonderful Independence Day!

My hubby...

...was getting Andrew ready for bed after a tub.  He grabbed an old Ohio State hand-me-down T-shirt to put on him.  Then, in the true character of my hubby, he had to track down Andrew's Iowa Hawkeye shorts to balance things out.

Spider Dystwa

Andrew's Spider he made at school

(if you could only see how dirty he was in this picture - they played hard outside today)

When I asked what this creature's name was, you can guess what's Andrew's response was.

All drains lead to the ocean...or the ER

My parents came up this weekend. Andrew was so excited that early Saturday morning, he came into our room with the last piece of paper from the chain link saying, “One more all done”. (We kept telling him on Friday that he still had one more night-night, one more wake-up, one more link, etc…).

Dad and Marc spent the morning fishing, so Mom and myself and the boys went for a walk and hit some garage sales in our neighborhood. We got some cool basketball outfits, a big truck book and winter boots for Andrew. Then we picked up an Old McDonald’s lunch on the way to the airport observation area. It was a good busy day. We say lots of planes take off and land. Finally, we hit Meier for a quick stop for a few groceries. Well, the quick stop turned into a full-fledged event as it just happed to be “Kids Daze”. Andrew got to catch his own goldfish, he got stickers and balloons and ice cream. However, if you’ve seen Finding Nemo and know the dentist’s niece, then you know how Andrew treated his new goldfish in it’s water filled plastic bag. That poor fish was ran with, shaken, attempted to be pulled through the holes in the cart, etc… He didn’t have a chance. When we put him in his bowl after got home, he, um, was, um…. belly up. Fortunately, Andrew didn’t form any type of bond and cared less that his 45-minute pet was now in fishy heaven. So a’ flushing we will go.

It’s already way past naptime since our Meijer trip took much longer than we expected. We came home, shortly before the guys got home from fishing and we all took naps. Then for dinner, we got treated to Mongolian BBQ. One of our favorite restaurants! After coming home to feed AJ and change Andrew’s clothes due to spilled water, Andrew, mom and myself headed back out to the playground where Andrew ran and played and swung and was perfectly happy and healthy. We came home for some root beer floats and baths before heading to bed.

Last night, around 1-2am, Andrew woke up crying pretty hard. This is not totally unheard of. Marc went in his room, calmed him down, snuggled him and he went back to bed. Then this morning around 6 when the guys were getting ready to go fishing, Andrew was fussing again. So my dad went up to check on him. He tried to stand Andrew up and he kept falling. This happened 3 times. Dad just thought he was still half asleep and brought him down and stuck him in bed with my mom where he went back to sleep. This morning, when mom and Andrew got up (they let me sleep in a bit), Andrew wouldn’t put any weight on his foot. At first we just thought maybe it was asleep, but after a few hours of my normally busy, running, jumping boy just sitting, wanting carried everywhere and crying when his foot was touched, we decided to take him to the Urgent Care Center.

He did so well and was so brave. Of course, I had to explain numerous times that we had no idea what happened or how he hurt his foot. It was swollen but not bruised. Well, 5 x-rays later, they couldn’t find a break or anything obviously wrong, so I expected them to send us home telling us to ice it, keep Motrin in him, etc…. No, they told us they wanted us to go to the ER to have a pediatric radiologist check it out. Of course, my hubby (whose cell phone is like a fifth limb) doesn’t have his phone on him and has no idea that we are not at church.

We pack up and head to the hospital where he got a complete work over. And hours later we were sent home with no new news. Just keep Motrin in him and watch for redness and fever. Hmmm… bizarre.

By now it’s way past lunchtime and naptime. We gave him a quick peanut butter sandwich and put him in bed for almost a 3-hour nap. We order pizza since it was so late in the day and we were all starving. Then we all crashed too for a good while.

The good news is that after his nap, he started to slowly put a little pressure on his foot. He crawled around the house for a while, then limped pretty heavily, then walked gingerly on it. Finally, late this evening, he was walking fine on it with no notable limp. He still didn’t do any running on it, but at least it was better and I am pretty comfortable sending him to daycare tomorrow. I am so thankful he is feeling better, but so baffled by his mysterious injury. Maybe he kicked the wall, or maybe he fell out of bed. No idea. Too weird. But he did so good considering his foot hurt, he was hungry, he was tired, we had long waits in tiny rooms, etc… Well, with two boys this may not be my last trip to ER, but I thankful it wasn’t something serious.

And that is a large nutshell was our weekend. Hope yours was adventurous, too.

Chain Gang

Grandma & Papa Huffer are coming up tonight for a visit.  And Andrew has been so stinkin' excited this week.  However, he is having trouble grasping waiting until Saturday to see them (they are coming in late tonight after his bedtime).   He asks everyday if they are home (at our house), yet.  So, I made a chain with paper links to hang in his room.  And each night before bed, he gets to tear one off.  When he tears the last one off and goes to bed, Grandma and Papa will be there when he wakes up.  I think this is helping him...I think.  However, everyday at least once, he will take me to his room and ask to pull a link off.  I tell him we are only pulling a link off before night-night time.  So then he'll crawl in bed right then and there and say, "Night-Night".

Boobs and Babies

My accomplishment of the day: Obtaining a key from security to the hospital lactation room. 

 

You see, now that I am back at work, I need to excuse myself once a day to pump.  This is about a 15-20 minute process.  However, each day I would have to call security for them to meet me at the room and open it for me.  However, almost everyday, it was me waiting at the room for them to show up... sometimes 5-10 minutes.  I even had to go back to my floor and call again a couple times.  I even tried to call ahead and give them advance notice, such as, "I will be there in 15 minutes".  No dice.  So now my 15-20 minute process was at least a half hour each day.  I only work a little about 4.25 hours a day.  And one hour is covering phones, so that leaves about 3 hours to do all my work.  So a half hour is a good chunk of my time, when I'm already pressed to get in my 15-20 minutes.

 

But alas, as promised (a couple days late, but that's ok), I have my very own key.  I am pretty sure that I am the only one using the room anyway.    And I don't have to face the male security guards who, literally, unlock the door and run...as if they just might catch a glimpse of something that would scar them for life.  (Even though the room has plenty of privacy curtains). 

 

Yes, it still may be tricky to sneak away for my 15-20 minutes on some days, but at least that's hopefully all it will be.

 

On a related note: I had my infant room orientation (for lack of better term) at the daycare today.  I got my mountain of paperwork to fill out and the run down on how things work and a tour of the infant rooms, etc...   I am still really really pleased with this daycare.  If I must work (and for now, I must), I couldn't find a better facility to put my kids in.  Maybe I am putting the cart before the horse, by raving before AJ's actually been in the program, but I was just impressed again by this daycare.  Of course, I better be... we are paying an arm and leg.  But I guess that is better than sending my boys to the cheapest place we can find.  Side note:  I was given a lot of info today regarding the infant program but one fact that stuck with me as impressive...  They can evacuate in less than 2 minutes (including some cribs, formula, diapers, and other such necessities to take care of the babies until they can be picked up).  Hopefully they will never have to prove it to me.

 

Ok, speaking of my AJ makes me miss my boys.  And it's time to go see them.  Yea!

Hmmm... he's been listening to the dad.

While the guys were gone on one of their Lowe’s trip….  I was upstairs putting the boys clothes away when Andrew starts looking for me.  All I hear is, “Hun-eee, where are you?  Hun-eee?   Hun-eee?  Where are you, Hun-eee?”

Five minute turned into five hours

For a while now our kitchen faucet has been pretty bad.  Leaky, spray-ey, etc…  to the point where we had duct tape on the sprayer.  Well, finally today Marc went out and bought a new sprayer.   There was much more that needed fixed, but at least for $15 we could get rid of the duct tape.  But because of how the sink was set up underneath, there was no way we could remove the old sprayer.  Trust me, we tried.   We ended up cutting the old tube that carries the water.  Which means, the only way we can fix it, is to take the entire faucet apart.  So, what do we do…. call our friend, Andy who knows more about it than we do.    We figure, we have to take the whole thing apart anyway…. maybe we should replace the whole thing.   Well, Andy and Marc head to Lowe’s and bring back a cool faucet.  However, it was the wrong finish.  Our sink is a matte finish and this was a super shiny…. So back to Lowes they go for this one. All this time, I am giving the boys baths and trying to get them down to bed.  While trying to clean up the kitchen, I accidentally dumped Andy’s 92-piece wrench set.   So, for the next hour I strained my eyes reading itty-bitty fractions to put all his pieces back into his case.   Anyway, I got the kids to bed, his tools back together, and folded clothes and they are still in the kitchen working on it.  I have to give them credit.  They have really run into some roadblocks and so far are still working hard at it with minimal swearing.  I am really excited about it, though.  It will look really nice and will be so much better than what we had…  I just don’t think I am going to miss that duct tape.

The Top Ten Things You Don't Want Hear on Father's Day

10. Time for scrapbooking!
09. Guess where I hid the remote.
08. Hey, Honey, the airbags in your car really work!
07. They were out of your favorite brand. So I bought this non-alcoholic beer instead.
06. Good news: Lifetime and Oxygen are both running movie marathons tonight. You pick.
05. Look how cute, the kids made you a “#2 Dad” mug
04. Your mom’s moving in with us
03. My mom’s moving in with us
02. Let’s just cuddle tonight.

And the Number One thing you don't want to hear on Father's Day...

01. Guess what? I’m pregnant again…with TRIPLETS!

(Courtesy of American Greetings)

We made it.

Last night was somewhat rough.  As I half expected, AJ decided that an early 8pm bedtime meant it was time to be bright eye and ready to go at 2am.   So between feeding and changing and rocking, I was able to get him back to sleep an hour later.  Since I was up, I checked on Andrew…who was completely upside down in bed and near the edge.  I moved him back around so he wouldn’t fall out just to realize that he was soaked waist down.  I just cannot keep that boy dry at night.  This is a daily occurrence.   So I lift him onto the floor and change him and lift him back into bed.  He never woke up.  In fact, while I was disposing of his wet items, he rolled over, curled up and seemingly snuggled up to the floor.  Talk about a heavy sleeper.

Anyway, during all this, I was thinking to myself that we just might be skipping church this morning.  After little sleep, and trying to get both boys up and out, at 3am it seemed like too much of a challenge.   However, come 7:30am, we were all up…so why not.  We even were ready in time for me to grab my coffee on the way.  

However, on the way to church, it dawns on me that I completely forgot to change Andrew’s shirt.  He was still wearing the one he slept in.  It was old, with faded screenprint, discolored around the neck from past stains and even a little hole in the back.  That’s why he only sleeps in it.  I even considered hitting the Meijer near church quick to buy him a nicer shirt, but we would have been really late.   So I sent him as he was.  Tattered shirt and all.

Church was good, although it was tricky juggling Andrew, the diaper bag, the car seat, and my coffee.   Andrew did great in his class.  And I had my usual Sunday service…  in for praise and worship before and after the sermon and out in the hall walking/feeding/changing a baby during the service.  But all in all, it went just fine and I am glad we made it.

Now, after lunch of chicken nuggets and cheese sandwiches, both boys are down for naps.  I should be to, but I am working on laundry and I want to read the paper.  Although, I guess they both could wait.   Hmmm… I think my bed is calling my name.