The Night G Was Born

M and S the night G was born. He's soooo tired! (and confused)

M and G the night she was born. As you can see, she's a spitting image of baby S. Need further proof? Just look at S's baby pic at the top of the blog.
Thanks to Ken for taking pictures! We didn't have a camera with us, because we didn't know we were going to have a baby that day.

For those of you who missed out on the drama, here's the short version.
I thought my gallbladder was having fits, so M took me to the ER to get checked out (it hurt REALLY bad.) The ER wouldn't see us, sent us to OB triage, and they kept us all day because the OB and the parinatologist told us we needed to take the baby out NOW and I wouldn't do it without a GI consult because I was fairly convinced the pain wasn't baby related. It turns out the doctors were right (first time for everything, huh?) It was NOT my gallbladder or my pancreas. It was my (cue scary music) LIVER. Which had decided to shred my blood cells and swell for who knows what reason, but as soon as they cut the baby out, my pain went away. YAY! So we have a baby that surprised us coming and ...coming. I wonder what else she has up her sleeves? And that folks, is how we ended up with a non-elective c-section the day before Thanksgiving.

Cookie Monster

So The Boy and I stopped at the Quick Trip on our way home from playing to get gas and something to drink. For two seconds I took my eyes off The Boy, and when I found him again, he was eating a giant cookie from the bakery case. So we also bought a cookie. He didn't know it was wrong, and I had no idea how to broach the situation so I remained silent. Ideas from more experienced momma's?
Frankly I'll take this situation over yesterday's (nuggets in the bathtub...).

21 Months

My baby is 21 months today. Here are some of his favorite things:
Toys: Vacuum, cars, Elmo, toy stroller
Book: Goodnight Moon, The Story of the Creation from the book of Moses (awesome pictures)
Words: Car, Truck, Airplane, Moon, Star, Light, Hi!
Phrase: Up high!
Movie/Show: CARS, Elmo
Food: Cheese, apple juice, goldfish, corn dog/hot dog, grapes, apples
Animal: cow-hands down. The kitty is a distant second
Article of clothing: shoes
Off limits item: the laptop, toilet, followed by the Garmin and cell phones
Place to be: Outside
Friend: Ella

Going to the Lake

We took Sam to the lake Saturday, and of COURSE I forgot the camera. I did remember the important things like cheese sticks and apples...
Sam was fascinated with the ducks. "qu-ack! qu-ACK!" A few minutes after we got to the pier, another family came to toss cereal at the ducks (don't know why I didn't think to bring duck food). The mom kindly gave Sam a baggie of Trix to throw for the ducks. He had a pretty good time thowing one peice at a time, until he thought to taste the cereal himself... We convinced him that it was duck food, not little boy food. In the end he just dumped the whole bag in the water, which is when IT happened...
These MASSIVE carp, we're talking 5 footers easy, came to the surface, stuck thier lips out of the water and started fighting the ducks for Trix. It was amazing to wittness. Sam kept saying "FEESH FEESH!"
We wandered over to the docks and looked at the boats and Sam REALLY wanted to go swimming. We had to explain that though the lake LOOKED like a giant bathtub, the water was cold and really really deep. I'm not sure he got it, since he kept saying "baff! baff! DRINK!" (That's Sammy for bath and water, respectively.)
I was surpised at how close the lake was to our house, I think it only took 40 minutes to get there. We will be going again, as it's free entertainment and free is one of my favorite words.

New Fun Sammy Pics

A Favorite Past time-light switching. We got tired of holding him up to lights, so we got out the step ladder and let him do it himself.
Here's our Bucket Head Boy. Recently he's taken to getting out a sauce pan and sticking it on his head a la Johnny Apple Seed. When he does that I call him my little pot head.




We're calling this one "Stroller Boy". He LOVES pushing around the stroller, frequently with things like Mommy's phone or Elmo or a sippy going along for the ride. We're not sure how he did this (or why) but I couldn't help but take a picture because he's SO miserable. :)

Nearly Busted for Pot (really)

So I decided to try acupuncture this week in an attempt to flip my errant daughter into a more birth-friendly position. The acupuncturist was great, but that's a subject for another post.
Upon insertion of the final needle she literally flipped. Luckily she was already transverse, or the movement would likely have knocked me off the table, given her size (a healthy 7lbs by now).
After I spent some time with needles sticking out all over my feet and hands the acupuncturist took me outside to burn moxa by certain points. He explained that he's not allowed to do it in the building, since he's renting from some insurance people and they really aren't into that. Plus, moxa smells an awful lot like pot (don't ask).
So we're sitting outside and nearly done with the 20 minute treatment when a nurse from the doctor's office two doors down comes over. She says, "Our patient that just left is an off-duty cop. He said because he's off-duty he can't do anything, but he was pretty sure he smelled pot over here." The acupuncturist just laughed. Told her what it was and gave the clinical name (Artemisia vulgaris). The entire episode was tres humorous.
Then he told me that the school he went to shared a building with a law firm which naturally had cops in and out of it all the time. Since they were burning moxa in the school, the cops would come back to investigate the smell. Eventually the school posted signs explaining the burning herb was NOT pot, but part of traditional chinese medicine.
So that's the closest I've ever come to being busted for pot which is interesting because I've been around actual marijuana before and never come close. (No Mom, I never smoked it.)

Fascist America

Let me be the first to welcome you all to Fascist America! Yay! (Or at the very least, Socialist America.)
So I was thinking, we probably won't move to Canada, but it's becoming more clear that we will probably need to home school. Assuming it's still legal.
I don't want my kids to learn that it's OK to take handouts or that mediocrity is good enough, because it's not. No trophies for 18th place in this house! We will be teaching hard work, perseverance and endurance.
It's reaffirmed my goal to be the best possible example for my children of what a person can achieve through hard work. (Thank you Mom and Dad for your stellar portrayals of hardworking, loving, Christ-like and principled individuals.)

Voting Day

We heard the polls would be least crowded from 9am to 11am and again in the early afternoon. Having a prior engagement in the afternoon, Sam and I went to the polls at 9am. We waited 45 minutes in line. Once we got into the building Sam was starting to be fussy (nap time) and one poll worker overheard me say to someone else all that standing was causing contractions. (I was one person away from actually voting at this point) She offered me a chair and I'm thinking "That's government efficiency for you. They are only able to accommodate AFTER your past the point of needing accommodation". That folks, is why I'm a conservative.

Catching Up

Well folks, I am again guilty of blog neglect. In an effort to catch you up here are the major events that have occurred: Becky finished college (YAY!) Becky and Sam moved to Arizona. We moved into our new house. The new baby continues to grow. She's almost done baking. Matt loves his job, the economy went to Hell in a hand basket but life still goes on. The End. :)