boating and napping

A few days ago Noah was sitting on the couch watching TV. I sat down next to him, put my head on his shoulder and said, "Noah, I'm so tired!"

He shrugged his shoulder a little and said, "Mom, I'm not a pillow!"

I got up to fix dinner since I clearly wasn't going to get sympathy from him :)

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We've been seeing a lot of boats lately. It's getting hot and boating weather seems to be at it's peak. Noah saw a ski boat the other day and asked if we could buy a boat. I told him no because boats cost "lots and lots and lots of money and mommy & daddy don't have lots and lots and lots of money."

He replied, "Can we go to Costco and get lots and lots of money?"

"Um, well, not today"

Just like dad

Apple Juice

Dave's out of town for the weekend and the kids and I have had a very challenging day. I have been counting down the minutes until bed time. I turn on Backyardigans and tell Noah to sit on the couch and watch it while I put Natalie to bed. This is our usual routine - he gets to watch one show before bed. Tonight, though, he decided to test "the system"...

I came down from putting Natalie to bed to find him standing on his stool in front of the refrigerator drinking out of the apple juice jug - "because he wanted a drink."

So, needless to say, we didn't wait for Backyardigans to go off before I put him to bed, too.

Noah's special day

Noah and I went to lunch and a movie today - just the two of us. He asked why it was just us and not Natalie. I told him it was because we didn't get much Noah and mom time. He said, "You get a lot of Natalie time."

"Yep. So, today is Noah and mommy time."

"Why do I get mommy time?"

"Because you're special."

"Yes, God made me special."

"That's right. God made you special just for me."

"Just for you?"

"Yes. I told God I wanted a cute little man with blue eyes and blond hair."

"But mom, that hurt."

"What hurt?"

"My eyes hurt."

"Your eyes hurt? Why do they hurt?"

"No, mom. They hurt when you said blue eyes. When they pushed in the blue eyes and poked me in the eyes and my eyes got water in them when they poked them. It hurt."

I'm cool!!

Noah wanted to wear a short-sleeved shirt today so I told him he had to wear a long-sleeved shirt underneath. I gave him his clothes and left him alone to get dressed.

He came into the kitchen a few minutes later and, standing quite proud, said, "Hey mom, look at me!"

I said, "Hey buddy, you look cute!"

"Mom, I'm not cute"

"Oh, your handsome."

"No. I'm not cute or handsome. I'm cool!!"

Well, that was a disaster!!!

The kids and I have had one of those days. Noah is out of control to say the least. For example: He decided when he woke up from his nap that he needed to spit. He's never had this urge before but today, apparently, he had to spit so he leaned over the ottoman and spit in the floor. So, now you have a better idea of the day I've had.

I really want a hamburger - not Wendy's or McDonalds - a "grilled at home" hamburger. I mistakenly have the idea to take the kids to the store for dinner stuff. Mistake but we make it home in one piece. Dave is golfing tonight and even though I've never grilled hamburgers before, I figure, "How hard can it be? I can grill chicken pretty good. A burger is probably about the same." I debate calling Dave just to make sure but I hate calling him on the golf course. I never know if he's in the middle of a shot (or whatever it's called in golf). I start the grill. Because of the day I've had, I'm smart enough to buy the pre-pattied burgers. I season them and toss them on the grill and set the timer. I'm worried about them being under cooked since I don't really know what I'm doing but I figure I'll just check one before I turn the grill off.

The timer goes off and I go outside to flip the burgers. It's really smokey but they look okay. I go back inside and set the timer again. I glance out the window to see flames shooting out the back of the grill. Oh my!!! I don't remember seeing that when Dave cooks them. The fire is down as low as it will go. The only option I have is to turn the fire off but then they won't cook. I decide to leave it - thinking that it's just juice dripping down and making the fire flame-up.

When the timer goes off again, I head outside to a cloud of smoke. I can hardly breathe it's so bad out there!! I turn the fire off first thing to prevent flare-up. I don't know if grills work the same way as a pan but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I open the grill and am amazed at how black the burgers are. Oh well - so much for a decent burger!! :) There are 4 patties and one looks edible. I'll see what I can manage for the other 3.

So much for being worried about them being under cooked. I put the one closest to edible on a hamburger bun for me. The kids like their burger cut up so I'm sure I can manage something for them. I am able to scrape some meat from the center of 2 of the patties. The pieces end up being the size they need to be for the kids and just enough to split between the two of them. The fourth patty is beyond anything...I'm not even sure I can cut into it! I hope Dave picks up something for himself on the way home from golf. There's no way this is going anywhere. I'm smart enough to know that even the garbage disposal can't handle this one.



As I eat my well-done burger and the kids eat their burger pieces, I think back on my day and figure I can sum it all up with this... "Well, that was a disaster!" That pretty much covers my day and dinner all in one.

Noah decides he's still hungry. Of course he is!! Of all the nights to want a second helping. He keeps asking if he can eat a bagel and since there's no more edible hamburgers, I say yes. Bagel for dinner it is!

After the kids finish eating I send them to the carpet to play. I eat a few bites of ice cream and think to myself, "I can't wait to be 60. My kids will be grown and have kids of their own. I will bask in their stories and think 'what goes around - comes around!' "

Collars

Noah point to Dave's shirt the other day and said, "We have the same shirt. Mine has a collar and your's has a hole." Dave was wearing a crew neck shirt :)

Scarring

Some of you have asked if I have a scar on my eye. I've posted pics so you can see that not only do I have a scar but I also need to have my eyebrows waxed :)

Bad Day

Natalie has been waking up between 1 - 2 with bad dreams. Sometimes she works it out and sometimes I have to get up with her. This has been going on for a few weeks. Last night was no exception.

As I come out of the room to head towards her room, Noah is coming down the hall. I stop him and put him back in bed. He says he wants to go downstairs. I explain that it's still dark so we can't go downstairs; it's time to sleep. He proceeds to ask me about fixing the laundry room door because there are monster's. Okay - he's still waking up from a bad dream. I tell him that Dave fixed the laundry room door and it was fine. He wants me to lay down with him. I tell him that I have to take care of Natalie but I'll come back.

I take care of her and get her back down. I climb in bed with him and his eyes are as big as quarters. He's looking around - clearly still scared from his dream. I tell him to go to sleep. I figure I'll lay there for a few minutes until he falls back to sleep. A few minutes later his eyes are still wide open. I decide to get my pillows and hope for the best. I can't get comfortable because he sleeps in the middle of the bed and he uses flannel sheets. It's going to be a long night...boy - oh - boy is it ever. Just as he is about to fall asleep, Natalie wakes up again. I have to get out of bed to take care of her which wakes him from his near sleeping state. They "tag-team" me for almost an hour and a half.

At 8, Noah comes in to wake me because "it's time to get ready for school." I lay there, trying to wake up knowing that once I get moving, I'll be fine.

I get up. I get Natalie up. We head downstairs. Noah is eating a bowl of cereal and I get Natalie settled so I can make my mocha. It's a school day and we have to be loading up in the car by 8:40. If we aren't in the car by 8:40, I will have to take him into school. With the way the day is starting, I accept the fact that no matter how hard I try, today I'll have to take him in so I get changed into jeans/t-shirt. At 8:50 we load up in the car and rush out of the garage to head off to school. However, in my rush to back out of the garage, I didn't pay attention to how close the Jeep was to the door frame of the garage and I broke the passenger side mirror... "oh, sh*t!" I break down in tears. My day is not starting out well and doesn't seem on a track to get any better. I"m covered in mocha, we're late for school and I just broke the mirror... "oh, sh*t!" Noah asks me why I'm crying. I tell him that I'm having a bad day and dig my phone out of my purse.



I call Dave and find out - "now what?" He assures me it's an easy fix because the mirror is still attached to the Jeep; fixing the broken glass is easy. "Take Noah to school. You're day will get better."

I change into dry clothes and we're off again. I drop Noah off at school and hear him telling his teacher, "My mom broke the mirror on her car."

I head out to pick up a travel booster seat for Natalie. It's about 15 minutes west but I figure it will just enough time to pick up the seat, rush home for a shower before I have to pick up Noah.

I arrive at the woman's house to pick up the booster. I ring the door bell - no answer. I knock on the glass door - no answer. I ring the door bell again - no answer. I"m starting to get really upset. After the way my morning has been working out and I've rushed all the way over here and now she's not home. I knock on the front door - no answer but I hear noises inside so I think someone must be on their way to the door. I hear the garage door open so I lean around the corner. The woman looks at me like she has no idea why I am standing at her front door. I ask her if she's selling the booster seat. She's very surprised and runs in to get the seat. Apparently she forgot I was coming. If I had been 60 seconds later, she wouldn't have been home at all. Seeing that me catching her before she left, my luck for the day must be turning.

I drive home and as I'm get Natalie out of her seat my phone rings. It's school...

"This is Angie. I wanted to let you know that Noah's okay but he ran into the wall in the gym. He has a bump and you need to come pick him up."

I buckle Natalie back into her seatbelt, and we're off to school. I call Dave. "I'm on my way to pick Noah up from school. He ran into the wall in the gym and has a knot on his head."

"What do you mean he ran into the wall?"

"I don't know. I"ll call you from school."

I walk into school thinking I had seen enough knots on Noah's head to know that he'll be fine. I walk into the school office..."OH MY GOSH!!!!"

I have never seen a bump so big. I'm told the bump has gone down a lot since it first happened 25 minutes prior. If it's gone down a lot, how big did it get...the thing is HUGE!!

I call Dave from the school office. He calls the dr office while I load the kids in the car. He calls to say that the dr said to go home and monitor Noah. He gave us a list of things that are normal and a list of things that are bad.

(an hour and a half later)



For the next 6 hours, I am on constant Noah watch. It seems that Natalie's take on the whole situation is: Noah's laying on the couch watching TV and is unsuspecting of my sneaky ways. I'll take the opportunity to attack.

His teacher called later this afternoon to check on him. She explained that they were playing "Stop. Go." (3yr old version of red light/green light) When they said "stop", he was going faster than his feet could keep up so when he stopped, he fell into the wall. As much as "running into the wall" made sense because he is related to me, it didn't quite make sense how it happened. Now it makes sense - he didn't run into the wall, he fell into the wall.

We survive the next few hours and by 4, Noah and Natalie are running laps through the house. Whew - we survived another day.

Babies

"Mom. Do boys have babies in their bellies?"

"No. Just mommies. Mommies have babies in their bellies."

"Do you have a baby in your belly?"

"No. I don't have a baby in my belly."

"Oh. You look like you have a baby in your belly."

"Okay. Well, thanks."

"You're welcome."

Headaches

I, for some dumb reason, thought it would be a good idea to take the kids to the mall today to buy them some new clothes.

Noah likes getting new clothes and doesn't mind trying them on. The problems start when he doesn't want to take them off. I explain to him that he can't wear shorts and t-shirts because it's too cold. He starts freaking out. I ignore it and eventually we move on.

This is especially stressful to me when we are so close to Natalie's nap time.

We gather the clothes we are have picked out, pay and leave the mall.

I am at my maximum stress level and Noah asks if he can listen to his "Wheels on the Bus" song... um, no.

"No."

(whining) "Why? I want to listen to the Wheels on the Bus song."

"No, Noah."

(whining and beginning to yell) "I WANT to listen to my song!!"

"I said no."

"Why?"

What I want to say at this point, but know I can't..."Because you're talking ugly and you're pissing me off!!"

So instead I say, "No, Noah. Because you're talking ugly and you're giving me a headache."

"Sorry, mom. You give me a headache, too."

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!! Really?!?!

Forget it...

I don't turn the music on and it becomes quite clear we are riding quietly. I don't have to explain this to him. I think he senses the stress!!!

About 15 minutes later Natalie starts babbling. Noah turns to her and says, "Be quiet, Natalie. We are riding quiet."

Well...I'm glad we are all finally on the same page :)

All is well and life is normal again after naps - thank god!!

Things you take for granted until they're almost gone

After being stuck in the house for 3 days because of snow and ice, I decided this morning that I can't take another day being stuck in the house again. The weather has cleared and even though the roads are slow going, it's worth my sanity to brave the elements and take the kids to the mall. They need to run and burn off energy.

I email Dave and tell him my plans. He calls to say that he will meet us at the mall for lunch.

We get the mall and head inside. I see that KB Toys is going out of business and even though is only one rack of stuff left, it's 90% off so I stop to look. There is a few High School Musical things on the shelf so I shop for Bella.

I'm terrible at math so I walk to the counter and ask the girl how much one of the toys are. I notice that the toy is opened and missing a few pieces so I go back for an unopened one. I lean over the shelf to get the toy and poke myself in the eye with one of the metal stick hooks that the toys hang from. I actually hear it poke my eye. I think, "I've poked my eye ball. Oh my gosh - I have literally just poked my eye. Can I see?" There are a few seconds of denial because of the embarrassment over not seeing the stick hanging off the shelf. I blink - a lot - to be sure I can still see. I walk back to the counter and touch the corner of my eye because it's watering. When I look down at my finger it's not water, it's blood. Oh my gosh!!! The lady behind the counter says, "Oh. You're bleeding." I turn to look at my eye in a display shelf mirror and in the brief second I can stand to look, it seems that I have poked through my eye lid. I can remember thinking, "Oh boy! Breathe. The kids are here. Remain calm. Call Dave."

I walk back to the counter and ask the nice ladies for help. One calls mall security and the other kindly digs through the stroller to my purse and finds my phone. I know if I call Dave from the store's phone, he won't pick up because he won't recognize the number.

I call him:
"Are you at the mall yet?"
"Yes"
"I'm at KBToys and I've poked my eye. I'm bleeding and I think I need to go to the hospital."
"What do you mean, you've poked your eye?"
"I've poked my eye and I need you to come down here."

It's every amount of everything I have in me to remain calm, control the tears and not scare the kids.

"What do you mean, you've poked your eye? How?"
"Just come down here, please."

He comes running around the corner and looks at it. One look at him and I slowly lose control of my composure. He looks at my eye and asks if I can see. Thankfully - yes! It could have been so much worse and I got lucky. I can still see! This realization sets in and I begin to lose all control.

Mall security walks in and wants to call an ambulance to transport me. This is probably the most exciting thing that has ever happened to him at work. We politely decline and head for the nearest ER.

I cry all the way to the hospital. A small amount of tears for pain and a large amount of tears for thankfulness. I can still see!!

The doctor comes in to look at it. It's not as bad as expected. I have not poked through my eye lid and it's a "superficial wound". I am moved to a different room, given an updated tetanus, a numbing shot on my eyelid, 3 stitches in my 1.5 cm "scratch", a prescription for vicodin, and a pirate patch. Noah is ecstatic about the pirate patch so they give me two "in case one gets lost".

As we leave the hospital, I begin to tear up again. I can still see!

Yes, I would have still been able to see out of one eye had I not been so lucky. But I was lucky and I can still see out of both!

For those you wondering - the toy would have been a $1.

She asked, as I'm walking out dripping blood and tears - literally, if I still wanted to buy it.

"No, thank you."

Sickness and Santa

It's been a while - sorry...

As you may or may not know, December was a month of illness for us. Noah had a cough for 2 1/2 weeks. Just as his cough started to get better, he started complaining about having severe pain in his right side. We called the doctor and we are immediately sent to the ER for suspected appendicitis.

We arrive about 1pm and go back to an exam room almost immediately (impressive for Children's ER - much faster than expected). After hours of poking, proding, x-rays, ultrasounds, blood work, and an IV, Noah is finally admitted around 3am. We were in the ER so long that some of the hospital office staff stopped by to visit. They said that they can't ever remember a time that a patient has spent so much time in the ER without being admitted and jokingly said they are now calling his exam room the "Noah Suite". How nice - by 3am when we're admitted, it's probably gone from Noah's Suite to Noah's Wing. The next afternoon he is discharged and the dr says that it's just a bad tummy ache. Once he poops, he'll be fine. What I hear: "We don't know what's wrong. Go home and if it gets worse, come back." He can sense my frustration and once all the student dr leave, he asks me how confident I am in what he has told me. I told him that I don't believe him and they were discharging us without diagnosis. We talked about it and I felt better but not convinced I wouldn't be back later that night. Noah has waves of severe pain over the next few days. We had hospitals bags packed by the door and everyone on stand by to take care of Natalie. It turns out the dr was right - he just needed to poop. I'm glad it wasn't appendicitis but how embarrassing..."Noah was in the hospital." "Why?" "He had to poop." Really - I can't have some amazing story of rushing off with appendicitis and survivng surgery and recovering at home. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad it wasn't appendicitis but come on - he just had to poop?!?!



A few minutes before the severe pain started, we were visiting Santa at the mall. Santa also came to see him in the hospital before he was discharged. On the way home from the hospital he says, "Mom, I don't like the hospital Santa. Just the mall Santa." I'm surprised and ask him how many Santas there are "Two. One that lives at the mall and one that lives at the hospital." "Which one do you like?" "I like the one at the mall. I don't like the one at the hospital. He scares me." He's pretty smart...the difference was the beard. Mall Santa has a real beard. Hospital Santa has a fake beard. "Which Santa makes toys?" "The one that lives at the North Pole." So, apparently there are 3 Santas - one at the mall, one at the hospital and one that actually makes the toys.

Once all is better from the hospital, Noah's cough starts back up again. Natalie and Dave get the cough, too. Natalie stops sleeping through the night - double ear infection. The coughing stops just in time for strep throat to be passed between the 3 of them.

A few days before school to starts back up again, the coughing, the ear infections, the strep, etc has passed and things seem to be getting back to normal. FINALLY!!

After one of our many trips to the dr during the last few weeks, we decide to stop by Chipotle for lunch. Natalie ate a quesadilla - sort of. About 2/3 of the way through, she saw Dave blow his nose so she decided her quesadilla was a tissue and used it to blow her nose. So - she sort-of ate a quesadilla for lunch.

Noah is potty trained. We haven't quite mastered overnight but I'm not as worried about that. He's wearing pull-ups overnight and some times he will wake up to change his pull-up because he's peed in it. The fact that he's waking himself up to change it is a good sign. Now if he can just learn to wake up BEFORE he pees in the pull-up. :)

So - after all that - sorry it's taken so long for an update. I've been busy...

Sniffy

Noah was watching Charlie Brown Christmas on TV the other night. He was laughing and wanted us to watch. He kept telling us the funny part was coming on again. We waited... Finally - "There he is!"

"Do you know who that is?"

"Tell me."

"That's Snoopy."

Off I went to finish dishes and Dave to work on the computer. A few minutes later, Noah yells, "He's back on!! Sniffy is on again!!"

Apparently Noah thinks "Sniffy" is pretty funny :)

Bed Time

Dave asked Noah last night if it was time for bed.

Noah replied, "No. My yawns haven't come yet."

"Well, maybe they'll come upstairs when you lay down."

"No. We have to wait for my yawns to come."

A few minutes later Dave and I are in the kitchen and Noah comes running in. He's very excited when he yells, "MY YAWNS CAME!!! It's time for bed!!" and off he went to bed for the night.