Saturday, September 29, 2007

Sunday Cuteness


This picture makes my uterus ache. I have been digging around and organizing some of my old pictures. I miss my babies!
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Friday, September 28, 2007

A Eulogy for Evan's Nap

It is a sad day today. We have come together to mourn the loss of Evan's Nap. Evan's Nap was a welcome friend when Evan was a baby. It gave a tired and exhausted mother a chance to rest and recuperate. I could count on two lovely and glorious naps where I could catch up on cleaning and sleeping. When the naps were consolidated into one longer nap I was sad but took it in stride.

I knew that Evan's Nap would eventually pass on. It was only a matter of time. I was happy that Evan's Nap lasted as long as it did, after hearing the horror stories from Grandma about how Evan's father's Nap had it's demise when Evan's father was a mere twelve months old. A mom can still hope though.

Evan's Nap's replacement Quiet Time is just not the same, I think that Quiet Time may be fired soon. First off Quiet Time is anything but quiet. It is filled with shrieks like one would hear in a room filled with agitated monkeys. Occasionally the shrieks will destroy Harry's Nap, leaving mom frazzled and annoyed while dealing with a cranky toddler. Quiet Time is also not very relaxing for mom since she has to listen for sharp and loud crashing noises that tell her that you have tripped and fallen while doing something that Evan was not supposed to be doing.

Please excuse my tears, Evan's Nap was a very dear friend and will be sorely missed in the Awesome Mom household.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Running around like a loon

I have been pretty quiet lately as you may have noticed. Lats week I was struck with a deceptively mild cold. It sucked all the energy out of me despite the symptoms being minimal. I have also been working on a massive knitting project. I have been knitting some wool diaper covers for the boys. Harry out grew the ones I had for him which lit a fire under my bum and got me going. In addition to this we have been cramming some physical therapy appointments in so that Evan does not go too long with out something. His therapist was on vacation and we are shortly leaving so there is a short window to get things done.

I am procrastinating getting ready to leave for a two week trip to Utah to attend my youngest sister's wedding. We leave on Monday. I have a lot of laundry to wash so that we can have clothing to wear and pack. I have a jacket that needs to be sewn for my dress. I need to make a list of what me should bring. I am not looking forward to the drive or the stuffing of items into our sedan. I wish that we had a bigger car but I am glad of the smaller gas bills.

The upside is that I will still be able to blog during the trip. My parents have good internet now so I will peek in now and then when I am trying to hide from some of the relatives that will be in town for the wedding.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Product Review

If you are looking for a nice tasty snack I think I may have a new one for you to try. I was given a chance to review a new product from Nature Valley called Roasted Nut Crunch. I was already a fan of their granola bars and thought that the kids would love to try this.

After opening the box and trying one of the bars I was quite impressed. It have a wonderful sweet and salty flavor combination. The ingredients are simple and make sense, there is no chemical talk and no preservatives. That single bar consumed mid afternoon ended up ruining my dinner. I was so full that I was not hungry for dinner hours later.

There are two flavors one with almonds sunflower seeds and peanuts and the other had just sunflower seeds and peanuts. I thought that the second one was the best of the two. I am a huge peanut fan and just liked the flavor and texture better

Despite the fact that I originally wanted these for the kids, they have not actually even laid eyes on one. My husband and I have been hoarding them for ourselves, thank goodness that the boys are not old enough to figure out where the good hiding places are. I give this product a big two thumbs up and I would purchase them.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Sunday Cuteness

When we pray the kids are usually pretty prompt about folding their arms.  Lately I have been trying to step up level of reverence at prayer time by having the kids bow their heads and close their eyes.  At church when it was bow your head time I would gently push the head down and tell them to bow their heads.  They have translated that to mean that when I say bow your heads a hand is necessary to push the head down.  Harry saw Evan doing it and he now eagerly uses both hands to roughly push his head into position.  I find it quite hilarious and have a hard time not laughing every time they do it.  Evan is also very amusing with his attempts to close his eyes and keep them closed.  He kind of moves his head around like Stevie Wonder when his eyes are closed.

The kids also adore playing on my bed.  Since the weather has started to cool we have been spending more time indoors.  I am sewing a jacket for the dress I am wearing to my sister's wedding.  It has been great to be able to have them in the next room entertaining themselves while I am able to sew in relative peace.  They are both old enough to (most of the time) respect the boundaries of the bed and not fall off.  They are also tall enough now to be able to get off and on safely. How they can spend house just hanging out on the bed I am not sure.  It is not even like they are jumping on the bed like wild little monkeys.  A lot of the time they just haul their blankies from their bedroom and just snuggle under them on our bed.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

A season of celebration

Fall has arrived. The summer had a last gasp on Labor Day weekend but ever since then the weather has had a much cooler and crisp feeling. The leaves had started falling and today we have had the first real rain storm in a long time. Fall is a time of celebration and reflection of my family. There are a number of birthdays and holidays. My sister is getting married in a few weeks.

Today is an extra special day. It was one year ago today that Evan had his last surgery. He has been pink for over a year now. When I look back on the time preceding the surgery and the time after the surgery things could not be more different. Before Evan was very Smurf like with a blue tinge to his extremities. He could not walk to our mail box and back with out taking a break for rest. He had some words but was very behind his peers verbally.

After the surgery he can go on long walks. That is actually one of his favorite things to do since he gets to look at so many different things along the way. Harry now wears out before Evan does. The naps which were essential are now not nearly as essential as I would like them to be. Even if he takes one they do not last as long as they used to. Evan's vocabulary exploded after the surgery. Every day he is starting to sound more and more like a typical three year old. He is a thriving and growing little boy.

It is amazing to think that had he been born when I was that he may not have been able to have the life saving surgery that he needed. The surgery was still very much in it's infancy and not nearly as widely available as it is now. Had Evan been born in my parent's time he would have died in a few days. I can't help but be amazed at how far medicine has come.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Yarrr! Avast me maties!

I hope that everyone be have a great day celebratin' Talk like a Pirate Day. We need t' raise awareness o' this holiday because a world united in talkin' like a pirate be a world that be closer t' peace. Go forth and celebrate! Ignore t' funny looks that people be givin' you.

Here be a fun pirate video for you t' enjoy. Ami Chopine and her hubbie made it t' celebrate today.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Sigh

I had wanted to avoid blogging about Evan and potty training for fear of jinxing it, but since his interest was oh so brief I guess it can't hurt anything now. When we were at my in law's house in August Evan started telling us that he was poopy and asking us to change his diaper. I was thrilled that he was finally starting to be bothered by sitting in his own excrement. Previously he could have had a messy diaper all day long and not cared one bit.

Once we got home he took it a step further and actually asked to sit on the potty like mommy. I had been letting him come in to the bathroom with me for some time now mostly because Harry freaked if I tried to shut the door but also to show the kids that it is normal to go on the potty. The things we do for our kids. I went out and bought him one of those inserts so that he did not have to worry about falling in.

At first he was super excited and would ask to sit on the potty. I was not very good about doing it super often but he was pretty excited about it when ever he got to sit on the potty. He even got to wipe and flush the toilet by himself. We got him to go pee on the potty a whopping one time before he started crying every time he went into the bathroom. He would ask to sit on the potty but once he got inside he would sob.

Of course this development happened as soon as I bought some really great training pants. One pair is made from Thomas fabric. Even this is not enough to get him into the bathroom to sit on the potty. Each time I ask him he emphatically tells me that he does not want to sit on the potty. So here I sit with my hopes of having a child potty trained dashed into pieces. I will have to stick with my original goal of having him potty trained by the time he leaves home for college. He is on his own after that.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Sunday cuteness

When it comes to dessert I am not a cake person. It is ok, but I would rather have pie or ice cream. Also once you have eaten the initial celebration pieces you are often left with a lot of cake left over just sitting there asking you to eat it. My husband turned 29 years old last Thursday so I dutifully baked him a cake. I have decided that cakes are worth it because you can get pictures like this.

This is what happens when I try and blog in the morning.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Bloggy Love


The lovely and delightful Karen (PediaScribe) has tagged me with the I Heart Your Blog award. It is hard to choose among all the great blogs that I read but I managed to pick a few out to share the bloggy love with.

  • Laura (Adventures in Juggling) is an amazing mom to four girls and a former preemie son who is now growing and thriving. She is also an awesome NICU nurse who is out there helping preemies and other sick babies.
  • Nancy (Are we having fun yet?) is a funny and friendly woman who I met through an email list for parents of kids with CHDs. Her daughter Jess has been through a lot of rough things and is still facing things that no kid should have to face. Her love for her family shows through her blog. I find it amazing that she can still have a sense of humor after all the stuff that she has been through.
  • The Midlife Midwife is a fun woman who had a great job helping women with their health and she also gets to catch babies. I love reading the birth stories that she posts. I wish I lived closer to her because I would love to have her take care of me if I am pregnant again.
  • Christina (A Mommy Story) is another hardworking mom of two lovely little girls. I thing that she could use a bunch of extra blog love since her eldest daughter was just diagnosed with Autism.

I had to add this picture, it cracked me up.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Loner?

Generally I am a loner. I would rather spend my time at home with the kids or pass my evenings at home with my husband quietly. I have, at times, pondered the life of a hermit with a bit of envy. My lonely hut would have to have internet though for it to be perfect.

I was discussing the future today with one of my mom friends. The word has spread about our possible upcoming move next summer. Our ward is loosing people left and right so everyone gets interested when the topic of moving comes up. One of the possible assignments that my husband is kind of thinking about, maybe, would involve him being gone for six months at a time (but he would be home for the other six). When I talked about it here eyes got wide and she wondered if I could rent an apartment near family while my husband was gone so that I would have family near by to help with the kids.

Honestly that thought had never crossed my mind. I had pondered the possibility of having a housekeeper coming in to help out and even a regular babysitter but never spending half of the year in one place and half in another. I think that is the loner in me speaking. And yet it really is not lonely to consider staying where we are put waiting for my husband to come back from his assignment. We will have the military family around us to help out when needed. We will also have our ward family to help out and to worship with.

One of the reasons I will miss this area so much is that my ward really feels like a family. They have been there with us for so many things. Even after Evan's surgeries are over the other mothers in my ward are who I spend the majority of my social time with. When I left the park after spending some time with my friends I felt so uplifted and refreshed. Despite my loner tendencies the mother in me craves the friendship of other mothers and a sense of community.

I think that one of the biggest changes that has happened in me since becoming a mother is my need to connect with other parents. I need to know that my crazy kids are not the only weirdos out there. We need to be able to commiserate someone about some stage or behavior. That is one of the biggest reasons that I keep blogging and keep reading other blogs. It is nice to know I am not the weirdest mom out there, right?

Monday, September 10, 2007

Woah!


You know you have spent too much time reading Science Fiction and Fantasy when you have a dream where you are in the woods hiding from talking wolves who you end up slaying with a special magical sword and, in the process of that fight, you are nipped leading you to wonder if you are now going to become a werewolf. Then, suddenly, you are in a spaceship and you realize that the reason you were hiding in the woods is that the evil maniac floating over you was trying to capture you as part of his evil plan to turn everyone into robots.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Sunday cuteness


Here is Evan in the classic "I am wearing shoes that are way too big for me" shot. My husband wears size 12 shoes so his sandals are more like skis to Evan than shoes. Evan was quite proud of himself for being able to put them on with out falling over.

I bet you think that something utterly fascinating is going on outside. Maybe there are lots of friendly dogs out there or there is a parade happening in front of the window. Well you would be wrong. It was my neighbor scrubbing the dried remains of the plums from the flowering plums out front off of the sidewalk around her doorway. They preferred that over the episode of Sesame Street that was on the TV.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Blogging stuff

I overhauled my sidebar links adding some new heart blogs along with some more favorites. Have fun browsing!

Fun stuff

As seen at Chichimama's. There is a quiz you can take to help me see if my assessment of my self is how others see me.



Thursday, September 06, 2007

Reading

I am a hardcore book worm as you probably have figured out by now. My reading time took a huge hit with Evan's birth but even then I still read some keeping to short stories so that I could put it down and still be able to follow the plot of the story I was reading. When I have a baby in the house I also keep to light reading, avoiding heavy tomes like the Lord of The Rings series. I did not even have a library card for many years, instead I made use of the used book store at the library. I knew that if I did not own the book I would be paying a ton of money in over due fines.

Now that I have a toddler and a preschooler I am able to read a whole lot more. It helps that I am a super fast reader, something that I never consciously taught myself to do. I spent hours in my room as a teenager lost in reading, so I guess it is no surprise that I can tear through a book super fast. I am also watching a lot less TV now that we have cut the cable leaving me with a ton more reading time in the evening. I guess I make it more of a priority now that the kids are not quite as needy since it is something that I enjoy so much.

I am feeling a lot more chipper about my reading stack now. My library has a special spot out in the front where newly released books are. They have a special seven day check out time but it is worth it to be able to find fresh new reading. I have not had too many over due fees from them. That mostly happens when I try and take out more than two of the seven day books at a time. While I was at the library yesterday I found another addition to an ongoing series that I have been following. This one is not disappointing at all, in fact I think that I am going to ditch you all right now so that I can read some more of it.

PS If you love really good Fantasy you have to check out Elizabeth Haydon.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Reading frustrations

I have had a series of very frustrating books lately. My first book frustration was that inadvertently I read the first book of a series that had not yet been completed. I hate doing that. I prefer to wait so that I can gobble down the entire series, one book right after another. I love reading series books and I got tired of trying to keep track of when the new books would be out, or if they even came out.

Next was a book in a very ongoing series that I had thought was over with. The author seems to want to milk it out and this book really strengthened that theory. Normally the stories are action packed and filled with intrigue. This book was not like that at all and the only reason I finished it that it was so short. After every chapter I kept hoping that action would pick up and we would have some better reading. I was very disappointed to say the least.

My next book illustrated the dangers of having the book catalog online for reserving books on a whim. This book was one that I did not remember reserving and I had no idea why I did reserve it, it was not the genera that I would generally read. The most frustrating thing is that the book could have been saved if it had been a bit longer. It was a quasi romance only it ended before the romance could resolve and the couple could fall madly in love and live happily ever after.

My final frustrating book was a medical thriller by Robin Cook. I read her now and then when I want something light, generally she delivers, but this book just drove me up the wall. The plot involved a young female doctor discovering that some doctors were conspiring to spread the Ebola virus around. The doctor worked for the CDC and thought her boss was in on the plot since he was being so rude and cold to her after she had rejected his advances. It turns out that he was not in on it, he was just a jerk and at the end this stupid stupid woman asks the boss out on a date. Argh!! Where is her common sense? First off, office relationships are a huge no no for so many reasons. Second, why would she want to go out with a guy that acted like that just because she said no to him? Third, what happened to the co worker that she had been dating that had also helped her solve the case? He apparently dropped off the face of the earth after his usefulness to her was over. Sigh. I am hoping that my next books are much more satisfying.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Sunday cuteness

Harry is getting to be quite the little monkey. Every morning when I open the blinds I put the cord up on top of the brick to keep it away from little hands. Those little hands figured out that if you stood on the box of blocks you could get to the cord and have a lot of fun. Harry was laughing up a storm before I took the cord away and ruined all his fun.




Harry passes out when he is upset or mad. Evan has recently become fascinated with the whole idea of passing out. He will frequently ask if I am going to pass out or if my husband will pass out. This morning Harry was having fits about the whole process of getting ready to go to church. I heard Evan asking about Evan passing out. I look over and there Evan is laying on the ground pretending that he is passing out. I could not help but laugh at that one. At least that reaction was better than the time Evan ran over to poke Harry while he was down.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Movin' on

This has been hanging over me for some time, we may be moving next summer. I have known about this possibility for a long time now, it is very much a part of the life of a military family. I think that this will be one of the hardest moves we may have to make for one main reason: we will be leaving some very amazing doctors and other health care people behind.

These are people that have cared for Evan since his birth. They have helped guide us through some very rough and scary times. They are also very nice people and have shown that they truly do care about Evan's welfare. I look forward to each visit that Evan has with them. They have touched our lives in so many wonderful ways.

I can email friends and talk with them on the phone, but I know that we will not be able to do that with Evan's doctors. They have to maintain professionalism and I get that which is why it will be sad when we have to finally leave. I feel like they have the right to see how Evan turns out since they have put so much energy into his health care. That is where this blog comes in, it gives me a great non intrusive way to allow them a peek into our lives (if they choose to) with out having to cross the line into being a stalker patient.