Mom secrets

Sometimes in the morning I hear the kids awake but lay in bed a little longer, not so I can get more rest but do I can hear them talk

"Hold on, Emme. I'm going to go downstairs and get her. I'm not a big person, so I can't get you out of your crib."

Emme fusses when Oliver leaves the room.

"It's okay Emme. It's okay."

Summer's second day of fun

Last Friday was our second summer day of fun.  I decided to send Emme to school and let Oliver spend the day with just me.  He's been mimicking Emme a lot recently, so I thought a day away would allow me opportunities to focus on his acting like a "big boy" and getting attention and praise without sharing it with his sister.

We dropped off Emme at school in the morning, and the director told me that Oliver's class was about to see a puppet show.  We decided to stay just for that part, and joined the other 3-5 year olds for a show put on by the Nashville Public Library of Mother Goose rhymes.  Oliver sat up with his class, while I sat back a bit.  He did really well, behaved, and paid attention until one of the puppeteer brought out a marionette.  Mind you, this puppet was the size of a doll, and the puppeteer was clearly visible up about the puppet show structure.  But regardless, it scared the bejeezus out of Oliver.  He started crying, then weeping.  He was sitting next to his teacher, who tried to console him, but when it became evident what was going on, I took him outside the classroom.  He was crying so hard he couldn't talk and had snot coming out of his nose.  I tried to calm him down, and quickly gave up on the idea of going back in.


After daycare drop-off, we headed downtown to the criminal courts building to get background checks for me and Wes (totally unrelated story; more on that in a while).  Ollie did great in there, even going through the metal detectors, and we saw lots of policemen.  From there we ran an errand to the UPS Store, and then headed off to our primary location for the day: Sky High Nashville.

Sky High is a new trampoline "park" near the airport in Nashville, and if I may say, it's fantastic (if a bit pricey).  Ollie and I got there just a little after they opened, before things got too busy.  He was definitely the youngest jumper there (and I the oldest -- all of the other moms were just watching).  We went into the "main court" first -- which is an area of trampolines about 5 times as big as the one pictured here.  We also went to the foam pit area, where you can jump from a trampoline into the pit and/or swing on a rope out into it.  Oliver took some encouragement to take the plunge, but then he loved it.  We only stayed for an hour, given the cost and the fact that it was time for lunch.  I will definitely send Wes back with him one time, and we might go one night for a date!

After the trampoline park, we headed to Burger Up for lunch.  Oliver had asked for a cheese sandwich, and Burger Up is a great place for meals with kids who are old enough to be reasonable (ie. not Emme).  They put their kid menus in children's books and let the kids keep them after they've ordered, which really helps with something to do while waiting for the food.  Oliver was tickled that his meal came on the same monkey plate we have in a bowl at home.  He tried to ask if the restaurant had gotten the plate from us or if we got it from them, but he kind of confused himself in the process. He scarfed his entire meal, and we splurged on a brownie a la mode dessert.

I attempted a nap after lunch, but to no avail.  At 3pm, we went and picked Emme up, made a Target run, and then stopped off at a park we hadn't been to before.  There was a little "go cart" type thing that Oliver loved.  Emme liked the pipe tunnels and the hippo.  I showed Oliver how to hang upside down on the bar, and he also tried out the spinning wheel (he gave up trying to stand/walk on it and just rolled over the top).  We were home by dinnertime, and the kids went to bed early and exhausted.

So summer day of fun #2 was a huge success.  Ollie behaved really well almost all day (slight downturn in the late afternoon), and I've found I have more patience with him after we've had fun time together. I think the sweetest thing of the day was that Ollie kept asking why Emme couldn't come.  He really wanted her there.  I tried to explain that we were doing things that Emme couldn't do yet, special things that were just for Ollie and mommy.  While he was excited to pick her up in the afternoon, he has also now asked several times to take Emme to daycare and spend the day with mom (and daddy, too?) at the trampoline park (which he says cannot be a park because it's inside, and parks are outside).  Emme will be the next recipient of a one-on-one day of fun, and I look very much forward to it.

Roof mans

Ollie has been really into the roofers around here the past few weeks.  We were one of the first houses to have our roof replaced after the hail, and now everywhere we go, there's someone getting a roof put on.  Oliver likes to play "roof mans" by climbing various places (on his work bench, one his bed, on his dresser) and hammering loudly.  He takes his job very seriously.

Recently, he said to me in the morning, in complete earnestness, "Mom, if you want to talk to me, don't say Oliver.  Say 'roof mans.'"  When it was time for school, Oliver wasn't putting on his shoes, and I finally said, "Hey, roof mans, put on your shoes."  He stopped whatever he was doing, looked at me, and said, "Thank you, mom.  Yes, you did it right."  And then he put his shoes on.  

A hole in the leg

Emme hasn't been healing very well from her last surgery.  She took off her own cast several days after surgery, and when she did, we noticed a small open wound that looked like the cast had rubbed a raw spot on her leg.  A few days later, after the cast had been off for at least a week, we saw the surgeon for a follow-up appointment and she had another small one.  By the next week, she had gaping wounds all around the circumference of her leg and up on her calf where the other satellite nevus was partially excised.  It wasn't clear what happened, but it didn't look good.

Four weeks plus out from surgery, it still doesn't look good.  We've been back to the surgeon, who said that Emme might have infected a small piece of the sutures, which then infected all of the sutures, causing the inflammation and open wounds.  She's on Bactrim now, just in case.  Wes says it doesn't look infected, and we're taking pains (no swimming lessons!) to keep it that way.  We actually haven't been wrapping it recently (don't tell the surgeon!) because that seems to help it close up faster.  It's going to be super ugly when it all scars over, but at this point, there's nothing else to do.  She has at least one more surgery, probably more left, so those scars will just be part of what gets excised then; they're not permanent.  This does make me worried that we're going to have problems with these remaining surgeries, as we did to some extent with the last graft.  There's really no way around it, though, and as usual, Emme is very stoic and hardly gives any indication that there's something wrong.

Oliver, not to be outdone, has skinned up both his legs.  The day that Emme's leg looked the worst -- gaping, oozy wounds -- Oliver refused to sit down in the bathtub because he was afraid it would hurt.  Emme, meanwhile, played happily next to him and protested when it was time to be done.

Yup, those are my kids.

Keeping up with Emme

Recently, when Oliver was changing his clothes, he pointed to his chest and said, "Mom, Cookie (Monster) used to drink from here.  But now he drinks cow's milk."

Mmmhmm.

Baby mine

Summer's first day of fun

Our summer days of fun have officially begun.  The kids stayed home from daycare on Friday -- in part so I could play with them, and in part because Emme had been running a low fever all week  along with her runny nose.  The kids were up very early, as per usual recently.  ("The sunshine waked me up.")  Wes had a departmental retreat at the zoo on Friday, and no other reason than it made me think of it, we decided to go to the zoo also.

Emme seemed sleepy by 8am but refused a nap when I laid her down.  We were at the zoo by 9:30, just behind several school buses on kids on field trips (ugh).  I decided to see how bad it was before giving up, and once we got through the congested entrance area, it wasn't bad.  The kids played for a long while on the playground, rode the carousel, fed the lorikeets, visited the snake house, and petted some goats.  The kids had a great time, but Emme was absolutely exhausted by the time we left.  We actually ran into Wes and his coworkers on our way out and said a quick hello.  Emme was asleep before we got to the first stoplight.

We got home and had lunch, and I put both the kids down for a nap.  Neither one fell asleep, which was troubling given how tired Emme had been.  I gave in after an hour and let them come down and get in the swimming pool, which I'd inflated and filled during lunch so the water could warm.  The kids had so much fun. Emme tried to drink half the pool water and had fun with the balls and cups I put in.  Oliver repeatedly jumped from outside of the pool into the water, while I encouraged him to put him face under the water, blow bubbles, and lay on his back.  After a little over an hour, Emme asked to go and lie down.  She did without a fuss and slept for almost two hours before we got her up for dinner.  I had to drag Ollie out of the water after two plus hours and then literally carry him inside to get changed.  Both of the kids seem to really like the water.  Oliver likes playing in it more, whereas Emme is more bold and less fearful of going underwater.  (She's truly unsafe in the tub if it's too full.)

Wes got home a little before six, and we had dinner and put the kids down early after a good bath (swimming in an inflatable tub does not leave them clean, per se).  They both slept very well and took good naps on Saturday.  We got the pool out again on Sunday, but it was cooler and Emme didn't last long in the chilly water.  I still had to drag Oliver out, even as he sat chattering in the water.

So summer is here, and I look forward to having these spontaneous fun days at home, in addition to more relaxed weekends.  We did a fair amount of traveling last summer, which we're not this year, and I'm glad.  Home, sweet, home, indeed.

Un-pacified

Emme has officially made it one week without her pacifier. After her surgery, I switched her from her regular pacifier to a newborn, gumdrop type.  She didn't like it as much, but it did the job more or less and was a kind of step down toward having none at all.  She's only used the pacifier when going to sleep for probably 6 months or more, so I knew this wasn't going to be too bad.  But having not gone through it without Oliver, I had no idea what it would be like.

Then last Sunday, after Wes and I came back from Chicago, I decided to just go for it.  I put Emme down in her crib and left.  I let her cry for five minutes (seriously -- I set a kitchen time).  I went up and rocked her, and she calmed down and asked to lie down again.  She cried for another ten minutes before I went up again.  As soon as I tried to rock her, she asked to lie down.  And then I realized she just didn't want me to leave.  I literally sat in a chair next to her crib while she fell asleep.  She moved her Baa so she could see me as she fell asleep.

The next night she cried for two minutes and then went to sleep without me doing anything.  The next night was maybe one minute.  I've maybe gone in once or twice for a nap or bedtime, but overall it's gone really well.  Yesterday, I don't think she cried at all.  Sometimes I'll rock her just so she'll ask to be put in her crib, just to make it easier.

I'm glad we used the pacifier with her.  It made a really big difference in her fussiness early on and her sleep later.  Even two weeks ago I used the pacifier in the morning of her surgery, when she couldn't eat or drink for a long time.  I don't think she ever got super attached to it, though it was clearly part of her sleep routine.

There are still pacifiers around the house.  I'll wait a month or more before I finally throw them out.  There are still vestiges of a baby around my house, but this is yet another that is disappearing.

See no evil

Oliver is clearly getting smarter each day.  A few weeks ago, soon after we had our roof replaced, Oliver was playing "roof mans" in the living room.  He kept climbing on top of his workbench, which is not secured to the wall, so that he could hammer on the top piece.  I'd told him several times not to climb up there, as I was worried the whole things was going to fall over.  As per usual, Oliver assured me would not fall over.

Eventually, I told him that if I saw him up on the workbench again, I would move it out of the living room.  Oliver paused, thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "Mom, don't come in the living room."  

Like brother

For Emme's second birthday

Round three

Keeping busy before going back.
She couldn't eat or drink in the morning!

Her special scrubs

Dr. Daddy in the waiting room

On the way home with her big cast.
She had taken it off by Friday!

Smarty pants

Upon turning into my parents' neighborhood: "Look, mommy.  There's the white fence.  That's how we know we're in grandma and grandpa's neighborhood.  I'm smart.  Isn't I?"