A Laugh A Day: No, That's Not Play-Doh...

For the past couple of weeks, Brett has been working very hard on his thesis at his office during the after-hours. For the kids, it means not seeing Papa much; or, in Isaiah's case, not at all, because of his early bedtime. For me, it means that I am on my own from 6:30 am to 9 pm. I should clarify that Brett spoils me terribly. His office is close enough to bike to and he is generally home by 5:30. When he gets home, he does a quick evaluation of my state of being and picks up the slack, whether that means playing with the kids for a second so I can finish dinner or popping some chicken nuggets in the microwave, feeding and bathing the kids, taking over the bedtime ritual and rubbing my feet when the imps have gone to bed. Despite not having him home as usual, I have to say that I have been doing really well. When I don't expect help, I usually end up not needing it. So far I can say that the house is clean enough, errands are completed, fridge and pantry have been kept stocked, laundry has been kept at bay, bellies have been kept full, and not too much crying on their part or craziness on mine. We even threw in trips to the library and Disney. Today was a pretty good day. I picked up the photos we ordered from Costco and got them on the walls, we taught Grandma Daisy how to use FaceTime, and the kids are in bed as I write this, no tantrums. Well, "where is the punchline?" you say. This is supposed to be a laugh a day, not this is how I survived the day, by not scheduling anything and just making sure the basics of life were met...a day. Well here it is.

Isaiah and Isla actually both finished dinner at the same time today (usually Isaiah is quick and cranky to get to bed while Isla pretends her vegetables can talk and takes forever to eat), so I thought I would throw them in the tub at the same time to get them off to bed quicker. Sounds sensible, but I should know that for me, it has always been easier to deal with them one at a time, Isaiah first since Isla is distractible. Well, they take a bath, great fun, I am drenched by their vigorous splashing. I get Isla out first, wrap her up and tell her to wait for me on the couch. She throws a mini tantrum because usually after baths we wrap her up and pretend she is a baby. I get Isaiah out, immediately he escapes and runs around the house in the buff. I am fine with that, I happen to think that all babies need to be aired out once a day, to feel what it is like to be free. I get Isla dressed, go to the hallway to pick out some books. And I see this:

Too graphic? Probably.
But why tell you when I can show you?

And so, if you forgot the title of the post, it is "No, That's Not Play-Doh..." I will give you two more guesses. I try to wipe Isaiah between the legs as he is running away from me, finally I scoop him up to the changing table and slap a diaper on him. Then I hear, thump, thump, thump coming from the hallway. If you have been to our new house, you know that when Isla walks or runs on the hardwood, it sounds like a stampede of baby rhinoceros. Rhinoceroses? Rhinoceri? Anyway, it went a little like this:




Me: ISLA DON'T STEP IN THE --
Isla: Wahh, what is that? (crying)
Me: poop.

She then does a furious stamping dance and spreads it in a neat little circle around her. Well, I finish putting on his diaper, leave him in the crib, he is screaming, I am screaming at Isla not to move, she is crying because everyone else is screaming, I wipe her feet, collect the poop, flush it, wash hands, finish putting them to bed, then lysol. I know I waited until the end to lysol but at least I washed my hands.

So yeah, these past two weeks have been fine. And even though I didn't have the foresight to put a diaper on him before I got Isla ready, I know that I am getting better at this mothering business because having him poop on the floor didn't even faze me. At least it wasn't on the rug.

A Laugh A Day: Faces

A Laugh A Day: Jedi and Associates

A Laugh A Day

This cracks me up. Get it? (Sorry, I had to.)

Because It's Fun

 We recently acquired a new, nicer camera and CS 5.5 to go with it. Since then, things have been both frustrating as I am learning to use the software as well as fabulous because I have been going through all our pictures and finding some great stuff. And now that I have joined the blogosphere (so weird, never thought I would), I have somewhere to display all the fun, old pictures I find! Here are some of Isla just before her first birthday, taken by Uncle Byron.

Turning 26

It was actually MY birthday even though it seems like Isaiah is the only one eating.

Brett and the kids made me cupcakes and sang happy birthday. We had no candles so we improvised by lighting toothpicks on fire. That night was the adult session of stake conference. We had no babysitter but Brett had to sing, so he went while I stayed home. I ended up watching Pretty Little Liars by myself. This may sound sort of pathetic but I thought it was great to sit around and watch TV by myself. I get so little alone time these days. When he got back I re-watched the episode with him. An easy, low stress, great birthday I have to say. The weekend after we went to Dave and Busters and then watched The Dark Knight Rises. Oh, and I bought my customary presents for myself and put Brett's name on them. He really is the best gift-giver. He (I) got me a key necklace that has a the month of August with a crystal on the 18th to mark our anniversary, and a dress from Shabby Apple. Susan gave me some funds to go toward quilting, so fun. 

I'd say a pretty great 26th birthday. I have a great husband and great kids, family and friends who love me, the true gospel in my life, and most of all, Facebook friends who said happy birthday (haha). A good place to be by age 26.

A Laugh A Day: Throwback, Isla Dancing to Bebot

I couldn't wait until Thursday.

Disney

Today my children met their heroes. Isaiah was especially excited. He ran right to all the characters - Tigger in particular - and snuggled and kissed them. You know that stranger-danger stuff babies are supposed to have? He doesn't have it.

**Update: Videos for grandparents. I wish Isaiah could have had more snuggling time, but there were people behind us in line!

A Laugh A Day

Rock hair and power stance.

A Laugh A Day: Faces

Hooray, A Birthday!

Isaiah turned one last Monday, and we had his birthday party at Grandma/Grandpa Singley's. The Jellings, Bouchas, and Dorotheos came over for swimming, cake, and general bedlam. It was a lot of fun. 

One point that made the party particularly fun for me as a host, was that pretty much everything was store-bought and low-stress. For Isla's first birthday, I pulled out all the stops - everything was homemade and cutesy and perfect, and I was stressed and didn't really enjoy myself. Not this time, thanks to Target, Sam's Club, and grand and great-grand parents.

Maybe it isn't fit for Pinterest, but Isaiah loved it. Especially the balloons. 

Ok, maybe we did make one thing, and it will probably be this way for every birthday since we have celiacs in our midst. Susan baked, I decorated. Here is the progression of Pooh (gluten-free):

I may have made a little mistake by not checking the Wilton icing tubes before I used them on the cake. Turns out the black and the red were not GF. Did I feel stupid? Yes. Susan tried to make me feel better by pointing out that the icing was so dry that they could probably just peel it off, and at least I had checked the label before somebody ate it. Nobody got sick, thankfully.

Isaiah and the other kids loved Grandpa's pool. It's amazing how kids can just jump into a cold pool and enjoy themselves. It took me at least ten minutes to get in completely, and I was only that quick because kids and adults (Kyle J) were lining up behind me on the ladder telling me to move it.

Will you look at that cake? We thank my mom and the fine people at Sam's for that beauty. We only ended up working our way through the cupcakes on the outside. We still have the main cake in the freezer. I am personally planning on eating it sometime, but I need to get over the idea of eating my son's face first.

At first Isaiah didn't really get what the fuss was all about (ok, I don't think he really ever got it). He didn't get the singing and was weary of the cake, but once he tried it, he decided it wasn't bad. 

My parents arrived with a huge load of presents, some of which were bigger than Isaiah.

Brett and I gave him something he has had his eye on for a long while, I think:

All-in-all, a fun party for a fun one-year old. Happy Birthday, Isaiah!

Number 1!

Isaiah's Surgery

10/6/2011

When Isaiah was around 2 months old, he had to go in for an inguinal hernia repair.

I noticed the hernia when he was a month and a half. Because of my training as an RN, one would expect that I'd have a stomach for unpleasant things pertaining to the body. I'd say that during school and while working as a nurse, that was true. Now that I am a stay at home mom, I must be going soft. I'm fine with the normal baby stuff - what goes in, what comes out (either end I might add) - as one would have to be in order to take care of children. But the abnormal stuff gets me sometimes. "Don't freak out, remember all the stuff you learned in school, it's not that gross," etc., I tell myself all the time. But now that I identify myself as a mom rather than a nurse, I always expect the worst and try to web-MD everything instead of first thinking about what the problem coud be on my own. Boy, I ramble.

So, basically when I noticed the hernia, I didn't notice the hernia. I saw one side of the scrotum smaller than the other and immediately thought, "Crap, where did the other testicle go? I would have noticed earlier if only one dropped, right? Could it have gotten stuffed back in there? How the heck do I get it out?" Then I called Brett. I figured that he would be more expert in scrotum-tology. He had to leave his home teaching appointment early to come back home and reassure me that our son indeed had both his testicles. Of course, by the time Brett got home, Isaiah's man parts were perfectly back to normal.

Did I mention that I have never really been around kids or babies other than my own, especially not male babies? Don't judge me.

Well a few days went by, and eventually I realized that he had a hernia and that it was protruding bowel and not a disappearing testicle that was the problem. Again, I'm not as dumb as I sound, I figured it out in the end. After some truly terrifying crying spells we finally pushed our way to a consult and got it all set up to have his hernia repaired.

I'm writing this well after the event, so I don't remember everything, but I do remember how nervous I was about having my new, tiny, perfect baby put under anesthesia. I remember crying the night before the procedure because I was so worried.

So the night before, he wasn't allowed to nurse. We were worried about Isaiah being hungry and inconsolable since he was so young and had never gone more than three hours without eating. It was a miracle that day. He hadn't had anything to eat after 2 am the night before. He didn't cry and didn't complain. He slept for longer periods than he ever had prior to that day (and following that day he resumed his normal schedule of eating a ton and being a bad sleeper) and was pretty much a dream baby. They took him back, his surgery went well, he recovered perfectly and never had any complications. He is one now and still an awesome kid.

Here are some pictures of the hospital and him at the after the surgery:

Here he is waking up in PACU.

Bye, Papa!

We are extremely lucky to live so close to Brett's office that he can bike to work. It is a morning ritual around here to wave as he leaves. Isla has been waving to Brett every morning as he leaves for work since she was around 15 months old, and now Isaiah has joined in the tradition.