Halloween---a week later. Sorry about not sharing sooner. I spent most of last week exhausted and unable to concentrate on anything. I ended up taking half a sick day on Thursday and then proceeded to sleep the afternoon away.
Friday night before Halloween we carved our jack-o-lanterns. This proved to be very difficult as two of the pumpkins we had picked out were rock hard. After pounding one of the pumpkins with a hammer and knife Chris ended up using his jigsaw to cut the rest of the design out. The pumpkin Chris picked was a regular pumpkin and he did an amazing job with his design.
Chris spent Saturday helping our friend, Bentley, move. Jordan and I spent the day getting the garage ready for all of the trick-or-treaters we were told would descend upon our subdivision. We picked up some decorated plastic that turned our garage into a stone dungeon so Jordan and I spent the afternoon getting that hung. This was not an easy task as the wind was blowing which made it very difficult to tape the 'walls' to the garage door. I used a heavy duty project stapler to hang the plastic from the ceiling of the garage. Since we had recently had a garage/yard sale and what didn't go was given to charity...the garage was basically empty. Chris put a TV out there, we hooked up our DVD player and played an eerie Halloween dvd that was on a loop, so it just kept playing.
As I was gathering my costume together I realized something terrible. I sold or gave away the black shirt that I use with my costume. So, I was not dressed in all black as most witches are, I was dressed in a combination of purple and black. Chris made it home in time to get his costume on and then he helped Jordan get into his.
We/I bought about $75 worth of candy to hand out to the trick-or-treaters. I had picked out several bags of candy that was not our 'favorites' so I opened them to hand out the Pixie Stix, the gum, and the nerds out first. Towards the end of the evening I opened one of the five/six bags of chocolate. We were left with four/five unopened bags of chocolate. We don't know if it is the H1N1 that kept people at home or if it was all of the churches having their Fall Festivals on the same night as the trick-or-treaters....we just know that we were left with almost as much candy as we had given out. Chris took most of it to the office on Thursday.
One of my VOX neighbors is in the hospital and she wants to keep a diary of sorts with her thoughts and feelings. She has an iPhone and wants to know how she can go about posting to VOX from her iPhone. I don't have a clue as I don't have a cell phone of any kind.
If anyone knows how or can offer up a suggestion it would be very much appreciated.
THANK YOU!!
Sure, I've been sick for a week and a half now with a cold that is holding on like a pit bull. And swine flu has hit the kids' school (not my kids luckily). But there are the graces in life that make it all ok.
Here I am again, two weeks in a row - woohoo! I probably won't get to do this next week since I only have three days in the office, but I am going to relish it today!
Notes from The Noticer:
"...a true friend holds you to a higher standard. A true friend brings out the best in you... A best friend...will tell you the truth...and a wise best friend will include a healthy dose of perspective." (p. 30)
"We grow up expecting everyone else to be just like us. And they aren't." (p. 42)
"I just think it's amazing...that a person could lose everything, chasing nothing." (p.49)
"...smart people get tripped up with worry and fear. Worry...fear...is just a misuse of the creative imagination that has been placed in each of us. Because we are smart and creative, we imagine all the things that could happen, that might happen, that will happen if this or that happens." (p.52)
About 8% of what we worry about are legitimate concerns (p.55)
"Most people spend so much time fearing the things that are never going to happen or can't be controlled that they have no energy to deal with the few things they can actually handle." (p. 55)
"...the seeds of depression cannot take root in a grateful heart." (p. 56)
Big takeaway from today's time: Perspective is everything.
A lot of you in my Vox Neighborhood are good photographers.
Not just good. Great.
Now that I oversee our church's website and various promo items, I am constantly looking for fresh, innovative, creative, original photos. On a limited budget.
Limited meaning I actually don't have a budget to purchase photos.
If you'd like to help a girl out by allowing me to occasionally use photos of yours that you've posted here or on other hosting sites, such as Flickr, would you send me a PM? I will let you know what I use, when I use it.
(I will not use photos that show any identifiable parts of a person, such as their face - I am looking for still shots, scenery, or photos with people's faces obscured - or just feet, legs, hands, etc. And if I am using a lot of your photos, it would move into a paying gig - or, I can give you a charitable contribution letter if you let me know the value.)
Gracias!
Since the Phillies are on their way to ANOTHER World Series Victory, the local news came back to interview Will a year after his parade debut. It was a rainy day and Will was as hyper as it gets. The reporter and his camera woman were very nice, and very patient with our little guy. Sean and I felt like total dunces on camera, but oh well. It's not about us. Luck for us, they only showed brief footage of us talking, and the best footage they got of Will. I don't think they gave him much. I wish I had saved a clip of last year's interview.
Without further debut:
Not liking:
- Being sick. I've been sick for over a week now. Every time I think I'm done with it, it decides it can go another round. I'm sure Target is staying in business just from the amount of Theraflu and Tylenol Cold I've bought over the last couple of weeks. (Steve and Ashley were sick a week or so ago.)
- My hair. I did have a couple of days where I was really regretting cutting it off. Then I just starting to think of all the things I didn't like about long hair. Couple that with finally pretty much having the styling part down now, and I'm loving it.
- NoiseTrade.com is awesome. Seriously, so much good free music. Just downloaded Alli Rogers. Never heard of her before today, but she's good.
- Allie Moss. Not only is her album awesome, but she actually answers Tori on Facebook. That makes Tori happy which makes me happy. She's just good people. I wish I had the time/money to go to the Ingrid Michaelson concert on Wednesday in Towson. I'd totally bring them all some Nutella goodies because they are all cool, but especially Allie.
- Wednesday night doctrine classes at church. It's just so good to dig down deep into the Bible.
- Hats and scarves. Seriously men, how do you deal with the cold neck thing? I know how I do, cute hats and scarves. I'm guessing you all don't care to run around in fuschia berets and flowered sparkly scarves, but it helps my cold neck.
- Steve. He's just wonderful and cute and I love him.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
Will has found many ways to befuddle us throughout his young life. His most recent puzzle: his refusal to poop. If you don't like potty talk, you may want to skip this post.
Ok so, a few weeks ago, he started to fight us on diaper changes. Then he started to go down the list of people who:
"are not allowed to change my diaper." I may have referred to this conversation in a sound byte post recently. We started to notice a change in his frequency and thought it was just a little irregularity due to a little bit of life upheaval. So we introduced prunes and different sorts of natural motivators. No dice. Though we're not yet potty training in earnest, we started letting him sit on the potty and try to go there, since he has fun flushing and seems to be excited about exploring the concept of the toilet. Still no dice. At our pediatrician's recommendation, we've started Miralax.
The kids and I have been at grandparents' house for the weekend as Sean is working on sanding the age old dirt and potentially lead paint off the floors in the first floor of our house. Will has expressed to me numerous times that he wants to go home because he doesn't want to poop here. When we have this conversation at nap time, I can tell by the desperation in his voice that the event is imminent and he doesn't want it to happen. He says he doesn't want to do it because he doesn't want Mimi or Papa to change it. Even yesterday when Sean and I were both here to change him, he still wouldn't let it happen.
Along with this new emotional bump in his life, he has developed Tough Guy Syndrome. When he sustains a little bump he looks at Mimi or Papa and says through his tears: "don't look at me!" He doesn't want anyone but me, and sometimes Daddy, to see him cry. Perhaps this is related to the new-found fears of pooping?
What is a Mother to do. Veteran Mommys who check in here, how have you handled this situation?
Jillian is three months old today. She will share the 3rd as the birth day of the month with Miss Adelaide, born this morning to our good friends. Congrats Kit and Jessie and Owen! They also share their middle name!
I looked back to see where Will was with his weight about this time in his life. He weighed in at 11lb, 5oz at two months. Now at three months old, Jillian tips the scales at a whopping 10lb, 5oz. Jillian is a very happy, layed back baby. She smiles when she is fresh from a nap and loves eye contact and interaction. I think she'll be quite the social butterfly. Often I have to convince her that we can chat after she nurses, though exchanging smiles with me is mostly her preference. Jillian smiles at her Fisher Price Rainforest in her cradle and it lulls her to sleep at night. Different in this regard from her brother, she usually drops off to sleep on her own when she's laying in her cradle staring up at her mobile, or out the window.
Jillian began Occupational Therapy at home last week. At her young age, occupational, physical and speech therapy closely overlap. The county Early Intervention Services identified that Jillian could benefit from OT to help her reach some of her developmental goals. So Tracy came to our house to meet Miss Jilli for the first time last week. She gave us homework aimed at helping Jillian: build her neck muscles and develop better head control, start to use her hands intentionally, strengthen her eye muscles to track objects around the room, and get ready to roll. Children with congenital cardiac defects are at a risk of reaching their milestones on a bit of a delay. One reason is very simply that the time she spent in the hospital was time she wasn't doing normal interaction with us at home. Even during the times at home, we were so focused on helping her keep her feeds down and getting her fed etc, that we didn't make times for simple play and tummy time. She spent a lot of time in the swing and her cradle. We are thankful for the free Early Intervention Services to help us help Jillian catch up. Already after one week I am thrilled to see a lot of improvement with her eye tracking and her hand grasps. She still just hangs out on her tummy sucking her thumb, but at least she's happy doing it, rather than showing frustration. She really can't put weight on her hands to push up for another 3-5 weeks anyway, due to healing time for her sternotomy.
And a side note related to her sternotomy is how we can and can't pick her up. Because of the healing process, we were instructed not to pick her up with hands around rib cage under her arms. Think about the way you pick up a baby. It is the natural way to pull them out of a car seat or up into your lap. Fortunately, we were pre-warned by the NICU staff way back when Jillian was initially diagnosed, so we began practicing this habit early.
These days Will is loving his little sister with enthusiasm and gentleness. She seems to like it, too because she rewards him with big smiles. He kisses her forehead and lays his head on her stomach. Last week he ran to fetch some toys for her and came back with some little books which he sat and told her to look at as he told her about the pictures. He seems to want to pick her up though, and needs frequent reminding that this is a big no-no. We had another talk about it this morning.
Jillian's feeding continues to progress very slowly. I'm having a hard time not getting frustrated that her nursing is not picking up in length of time or volume. Out of the 22 ounces she should be taking daily (as directed by her cardiac nutritionist) she really only takes 2 ounces, at best. Everyone tells me to give it time. So that's what I'm trying to do. But it's a struggle. If you're one of our faithful friends and family members who check in here to see how you can pray for us, the feeding is definitely at the top of my list. Please pray for Jillian to gain strength and stamina and desire to nurse - and for me to have the patience needed to persist, and wisdom needed to know how to help her and when to ask for help.
Next challenge to tackle: Jillian gets her Synagis shot this week, and I return to work for a 4 hour training session tomorrow, then next week for two 8-hour shifts. His grace is sufficient.
