Happy Halloween!

We went out trick-or-treating tonight. Poor cub was tired and only lasted about 10 minutes.

When we got home we decided to take a picture of ALL his loot. I lined it all up - jellybeans, graham cracker snacks and a Butterfinger. Obviously, he's my son.

Snooki Go Squash - Squash!

Yesterday Cub was treated to a two course meal (cereal AND squash).

He's really getting the hang of it and Gigi LOVED feeding him.

Thirty Second Movie Review - Waiting For Superman

Waiting For Superman

This documentary is beyond cookies and deserves more than thirty seconds. Not to be dramatic but anyone who thinks breathing is a good thing should see this documentary (not just breathing people with kids). Bottom line: adults have really screwed things up for kids.

Fall Festival

Yesterday we went to Graby's school for the fall festival. He was a little overwhelmed by all the activity.

Here are a few cute pictures.

Baby Free Friday - Mid Term Elections

I wish this stupid mid-term election would hurry up and be finished.

During election season, people stop making major purchases. At least, this has been our experience. I seriously doubt which party controls the Senate contributes to anyone's ability to afford new flooring, but people just kind of hold their breath (and wallet). Weird.

Here is my sticker for people who vote:

So Much Cute

In one picture . . .

No, I didn't eat the entire tub of cookie dough by myself.

Some Lessons - Cub's First ER Visit

On Sunday morning, we took Cash cub to the ER.

Lesson One: Trust your instincts (at home).

We knew something was wrong when Cash looked like this:

Sunday morning Cash woke up around 5 AM (which is too early for him). I knew he wasn't feeling great, so I tried to feed him in bed so we could both fall back to sleep. He wasn't interested in eating, but he was VERY tired. He'd fall asleep on his back (not typical for him) and then wake up 5 minutes later fussy-crying like he was uncomfortable. After about 2- 3 minutes of this fussy-crying (it was pretty pathetic as far as crying goes), he would pass out asleep. He fell asleep when I was wiping his nose, he fell asleep sitting up - I really just thought he was exhausted from his persistent cold. Buttin and I just tried to make him comfortable.

At about 7 AM, we decided to get him ready for the day. This is when we turned on the lights and noticed how pale and white he looked. I knew instantly something was very wrong.

First, I called my mother. She said we should call our pediatric on-call line. I called that number and was placed on hold. I handed that phone to Buttin (who was holding cub) while I called our insurance company nurse line. Our insurance company nurse said to go to the ER.

Lesson Two: Trust Your Instincts (in the hospital).

We arrived at the ER around 8 AM. There was no one else around. I guess if you're going to get sick, do it early on a Sunday morning.

We saw a nurse pretty quickly and all Cash's vitals were good (also, no fever). The nurse's first thought was that he was probably dehydrated. As soon as I heard this, I was pretty convinced that's all it was and that after some fluids our little boy would be back to his playful, pink-cheeked self.

They put in an IV. I suppose this is usually quite an ordeal for some small babies (they sometimes have to restrain them), but Cash was so out of it he barely made a peep.

This is poor little Cub with his arm all stretch out (it had to be taped to a board to keep him from bending it):

It felt like FOREVER until we saw a doctor, but when we finally did he said it was probably dehydration, but that they wanted to run tests (cha-ching!). They took blood, urine in this ridiculous looking pee bag (I wonder how they do it for little girls), did a chest xray and a head CT. Everything came back good (again, I was pretty confident it was dehydration). The doctor came back in and said it was probably dehydration (it can happen very quickly for babies), but he wanted to rule out meningitis. My gut reaction was oh, hell, no. Buttin didn't immediately understand that "ruling out meningitis" meant a lumbar puncture. I called my mother and told her that I thought this was too extreme of a test at this point, (especially considering he had no fever) she agreed. We declined the test.

At this point, the doctor said we were going to be transferred to Dell Children's Hospital and that the transport team was coming to get him (this was about 1 PM).

Here is the picture that made Buttin and Dadoo (my dad) shed some tears:

Here is little cub inside the ambulance (they didn't run the siren).


Lesson Three: Be (even more) Grateful

Dell Children's Hospital was wonderful. We were immediately taken to a private room with a shower, desk area and uncomfortable pull-out couch.

We saw several nurses and a resident within about 10 minutes. Everyone was pretty sure that Cub was dehydrated. He had already started to pep up a little from the fluids he received in the ER.

We we saw the doctor (she also has a six month old), she was so sweet and thoughtful and spent quite a bit of time with us. She mentioned that there was no need for a lumbar puncture and if she had been in my position, she would have made the same choice (see lesson two). She was quite sure it was just dehydration.

Even though our son was "just dehydrated", all the nurses and doctors and staff treated us like we were very important. I'm sure they have quite a lot of experience with nervous parents.

On Sunday night, I went to find the vending machines (I needed a candy bar and Buttin needed a Dr. Pepper). While I was walking through the halls, I was hit with the sobering thought that all the rooms were filled with other sick children and other nervous parents. I KNEW our son was going to be OK, but for some of these parents, their child's recovery would take much longer. I was instantly even more grateful for our child's health, our own health, our friends & family.

By Monday morning (after a very, very sleepless night for Buttin and me), Cash was smiling and feeling better:

We saw a team of doctors and they were hopefully we'd get to go home that night or the next morning.

At noon, he was taken off of the IV fluids and was keeping down boob juice and Pedialyte (which he loves) and then at four o'clock we got the news that we could go home!

It's not a great picture, but here are Cash (IV free) and Buttin smiling while we waited for our discharge paperwork.From now on, I will try to complain less about my lack of sleep because our son has strong lungs and can cry out for me at night. Not every parent is this lucky and Buttin and I are truly fortunate.

Are You Cereal?

Tonight, we tried cereal with MorMor.

It was actually a success (kind of).


Here's MorMor feeding Cub some Pedalyte (which he really does love).

Home Sweet Home

We're finally home from our 36 hour stay in the hospital.

Little cub is doing much better, he's still congested but no longer dehydrated.

I'll write more tomorrow, but here's a quick picture.

This is when he arrived at Dell Children's Hospital and they're taking all his vitals.

What Happened To The Cooler Weather?

This morning I did a very nasty, sweaty 5 miles.

Sixty-eight degrees with 99% humidity isn't much better than 76 degrees with 90% humidity (which is what it was like in August). Is it weird to say that I miss September? Our weather was much nicer in September.

With all this un-fall-like weather it's been a little difficult to get into the Halloween mood. I wanted to bring Graby to a pumpkin patch this weekend (because that's what you do when you have kids), but he's still kind of sicky and the closest pumpkin patch (that isn't just in a church parking lot) is about a 45 minute drive. So Buttin went to the grocery store and we made our very own (world's smallest) pumpkin patch.

I'm glad we didn't make the 45 minute drive because he was utterly unimpressed with the pumpkins. I think sometimes he just humors me with all the pictures I take. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Baby Free Friday - Paranormal Activity 2

To see it or not to see it?

I saw Paranormal Activity (1) last year at Fantastic Fest and nearly peed myself in fright.

Last night, I read reviews for Paranormal Activity 2 and woke up at 1:00 AM and had to watch QVC because I kept thinking about the first movie.

Paranormal Activity 2 (for those of you who live in a cave or don't watch TV or don't use the interwebs) features a large dog and a baby - I have a large dog and a baby!

Buttin is going to see it tonight after I go to bed (usually at 8:30) and tell me if it's safe (enough) for me to see. If it is, Barbie and I might take a field trip from work and go see it. Yikes!

Snot Fair!

Graby's fever is down, but he seemed a little more sicky today (grumpy, snotty and not sleeping). So much snot.

A Little Sick BUT Still Swimming & Smiling

An illness has been going around Graby's school.

He's had a mild cold for pretty much half of his life so I didn't really think this recent sniffle was cause for concern.

Cub slept last night from 7 PM - 6:45 AM, but I have no idea how because he had about 10 metric ton-gallons of snot in his nose, on his face, on his pjs, in his hair and on his bed when he woke up this morning.

He was pretty happy when he woke up, ate a quick snack and watched some TV while I finished getting ready for work. Around 7:30, I fed him again and he felt REALLY warm. I've always heard that I will know when he has a fever. I stuck the thermometer up his butt (he didn't really complain because I gave him a container of butt paste to chew on) and it said 100.2. This is a low fever and even the doctor's paperwork says not to call unless it's 101, so I wasn't too concerned.

I called Buttin and he said just to stay at home.

He seemed a little more clingy and while I was feeding him (at 7:30), he almost fell back asleep. At 8:15 he fell back asleep for 2.5 hours (very unusual)!

I was supposed to host my mama's group today, but another mama volunteered since Cub wasn't feeling so well.

Even with his minor illness, we went swimming (the water helps with the snot drainage) This is not a great picture of him, but you can kind of see how he's starting to crawl. He can really scootch in the pool and on some surfaces.


I can tell he's a little off, but he's still a super happy kid.

Zumba!

I ran this morning (short little 3-miler) at work and tonight I was planning to do Zumba with Liz, but Liz felt sick so I skipped too.

I used to do aerobics all the time. It was my work out obsession, like, a decade ago. I find group fitness classes to be an entertaining people watching experience and also a pretty decent workout, depending upon how much effort I put forth.

My friend Liz does not typically enjoy group fitness classes -- the gigantic room of sweat and germs, the drill Sargent-type instructors and people who are just a little to happy to be jumping around in a room full of mirrors in front of total strangers -- what's not to love? However, she put all her dislikes aside and started doing Zumba.

She's become like this crazy running girl I know/knew (although the crazy running girl had a baby not too long ago, so now she's baby crazy) about Zumba and other group fitness classes too! She's gotten so excited about them that I actually joined her and you know what? Zumba is pretty fun.

Feel better Liz, I'm looking forward to shaking (my non-ringing butt) next week at Zumba!

Now, here's a picture of Graby attacking a water bottle.

Going Backwards

I feel like we're kind of going in the negative direction with solid foods.

Graby seems to expel more food than he actually ingests. It's still fun to watch him "eat", I just wonder when he'll digest some of my wonderful, homemade purees.

Little Cub always seems super excited to try food:


However, here is the look after his first bite (can't say I blame him, it's peas)


It's not a complete loss though, he has develop a real fondness for the water faucet:

Saturday to Sunday

A long, long time ago (pre-Graby) I did my long runs on Saturdays. Lately (post-Graby) it seems like I do my long (longish) runs on Sundays.

This morning I did almost seven and I ran past houses I hadn't seen in about a year. It was fun seeing all the houses with the same Halloween decorations I remember seeing last year as I was training for my first marathon (and peeing in their yards. . . just kidding. . . kind of).

As I was running this morning, I got to the point where if I turned around I would have gone only four miles. I was telling myself, what if Buttin needs my help getting Graby to sleep, but I knew that Graby and Buttin would be fine and that I would be better if I kept going. It felt good to keep going -- even if it was a little warmer and humider (it's a word) than I would have preferred.

When I got home, little Cub had been asleep for a half hour and Buttin was picking up.

Now, here's a picture of Cub swimming today - hairdo by Daddy.

Oh Daddy, Peas!

Sweet potato was kind of a bust. Even after six days Cub was still making some pretty bad faces and gagging a little. It was time to move on to something new (we'll come back to sweet potato another time).

This one is for my dad, the Dadoo!

Baby Free Friday - Dry Skin

I'm experiencing some severely dry skin (I know you find my condition fascinating).

I'd like to say it's because of all the dishes I'm washing or laundry I'm doing, but that's just not the case. I think my skin is addicted to humidity.

This weather has been great for running (I did almost 4 miles this morning after over seven hours of uninterrupted sleep), but just awful for my skin. I don't remember feeling this scaly this time last year, but I was putting tons of oil all over myself (to try to prevent stretch marks from he who will not be named, because it's Friday).

Oh well. I'll happily take having to re-apply lotion fifteen hundred times a day if we can keep these nice temperatures and lower humidity.

What I Think About When I'm Not Sleeping

The past three nights I've been wide awake between the hours of 2 - 4:30 AM.

One of the nights, Graby slept through the night - another night he woke up for 15 minutes to eat and went right back to sleep and last night he woke up and stayed awake for about 45 minutes. The point is, I can't blame my wide awakeness (it's a word, I'm sure) on Graby.

For as long as I can remember, when I can't sleep (and my mind isn't going crazy stressing about something) I lay in bed and try to replay good memories in my head until I fall back asleep (that or I watch TV).

When I was young (like pre-teen) I would lay awake thinking about swimming, especially about a good race. As I got older, I would think about boys (just one at a time) and replay dates or first kisses while trying to get back to sleep. Before Cub, I would lay awake and replay my wedding day or sometimes I would even think about running.

Since Cub was born, if I can't sleep, I actually replay the memories I have of his birthday. This might be somewhat surprising to people, but I actually love thinking about the night he was born. I love my memories of that day/night.

Now, here's the daily picture of Graby. I like to imagine that one day he'll tell his grand kids, when I was little we were so poor I had to play with old milk cartons.

A Halloween Story

Once upon a time . . .

there was a Pouty Little Bear


and a Focused Little Pumpkin.


Pumpkin: Hey, you - bear. I hear aliens are coming. Let's get out of here!


Bear: Silly pumpkin! You must be joking.

Pumpkin: No, I'm as serious as root vegetable. Let's get out of here!

Bear: Pumpkin! I think I found the alien.

Pumpkin: No, bear -- that's a monkey, albeit a very silly little monkey.

Pumpkin: Maybe this is an alien?

Bear: Pumpkin, that's a super hot chili pepper not an alien!

Bear: Oh no . . .how will we identify the aliens?
Pumpkin: It's OK little bear, don't cry.

Bear: Pumpkin! Now, is no time to sleep. We've got to get moving.

Pumpkin: Come on bear - I think we escape this way.


Bear & Pumpkin (together): Oh no! The aliens are here!

Bear: Mom, the aliens turned my pumpkin friend into a tiger.

The end.

Cast
Pumpkin: Henry
Monkey: Nico
Chili Pepper: Isaac
Tiger: Anderson
Bear: Cash