My new babysitter

This morning, Ruth asked me when she would be old enough to watch the boys by herself. I explained to her that it would be a while--not because I didn't trust her or think she wasn't responsible, but because there are still a lot of things that the boys need help with that she may not be quite ready to help with. However, I assured her that she could begin to prove herself by watching the boys for Daddy and I when one or both of us was at home and we needed some help. And to give her an opportunity, I left her in charge of Max this afternoon, while Weston was napping and Jeff was working in his (home) office, so I could run some errands. She took her responsibility very seriously and was so proud of herself for having gained this privilege. At one point while I was out, Jeff called to say that when Weston woke up, he wanted to go outside and play with the neighborhood children. Before Jeff could even say a word, Ruth piped up to say that she could not go out and play because it was her job to take care of Max. I was so proud of her for taking on this responsibility. She did a great job, and I payed her in lip gloss, which was a good deal for both of us. I can't believe my little girl is already so big!

La Vida Loca: Continued

Well, November doesn't look too promising so far. For the third weekend in a row, one of my family members has been to the ER. Tonight it was Jeff. He woke up this morning with a bruise-like pain in his forearm. As the day progressed, a red streak appeared, and by this evening, it had traveled all the way up his arm. The doctor took one look and pronounced it a Strep infection. He shot Jeff up with antibiotics and sent him home with a week's supply, which should take care of the problem.

And if that weren't enough, Jeff also had a blow-out in his car earlier in the week.

When will the insanity ever end?!

Getting my walk back

Back in May, I began walking in the mornings before the kids were up as a way of preparing myself for the day ahead, enjoying the great outdoors and getting a little exercise. Around the time school started, the mornings started getting darker--partly because it was just that time of year and partly because that was the beginning of our monsoon season. When it's dark, the trails in our neighborhood are really, really dark, and they creep me out. But, since we have such nice trails, we don't have sidewalks. And when school is in, there is a lot of traffic on the roads. So, with the darkness and the traffic and the rain, my morning walks pretty much just disappeared. But today, I got my walk back! With the time change over the weekend, it is now light in the mornings (and fortunately, the kids aren't waking up earlier because of it--and it isn't raining all the time). I really love these morning walks, and I'm so glad to have them back.

La Vida Loca Part 3: Parties

Start here and read in reverse order.

We sent out invitations for Jeff's birthday party, Weston's birthday party and our annual themed Thanksgiving party. All very exciting! And, we actually held Jeff's party last night (the day after we spent the evening in the ER, if you'll remember). We served 30 people approximately 20 pounds of steak, 5 pounds of chicken, 10 pounds of mashed potatoes, 6 pounds of carrots and parsnips, 6 pounds of asparagus, 5 pounds of sautéed mushrooms, dozens of rolls and two huge cheesecakes. And, we didn't have all that much left over. Our house was packed, but it didn't feel crowded, and everyone seemed to have a great time. We certainly did, proving that "crazy" doesn't always have to be a bad thing.

Thanks for checking in our our crazy life. We're hoping for a calmer November.

La Vida Loca Part 2: Health

Start here and read in reverse order.

Remember the day the van overheated? Well, on that day, we were headed to my parents' house for a family reunion of sorts. My grandfather had had a heart attack back in June and had some other health problems toward the end of the summer, which had prevented he and my grandmother from getting to see any of the great-grandchildren for far too long. So, the plan was for everyone to meet at my parents house for the weekend. We had a lovely time on Friday evening, but early Saturday morning, my grandfather had another heart attack, sending the whole household into a state of emergency. Thankfully, it was a minor attack and he is already back home and doing well. Unfortunately, he and my grandmother didn't get to spend much time with all the great-grandkids after all. We will have to try another reunion soon.

Remember the day that Ruth and I walked home from the library? Well, on that day (a week after the aforementioned excitement at my parents), we decided to go out for dinner. When I picked Max up to put him in the car (not the van, of course), I noticed that he felt a little warm. Jeff agreed, but since he didn't seem unhappy or uncomfortable, we decided he must just be teething and we would go ahead and go out to dinner. We all ate and had a great time, and then we got in the car to head home. About half-way to the house, I looked back and found Max having a seizure. Immediately, I suspected that it was a febrile seizure, only because Weston had had one right around the same age. Knowing what it most likely was definitely didn't do anything to ease the fear that gripped my heart. It was just awful. I snatched Max up out of his seat (which was easier to do in the car than it would have been in the van, by the way) and Jeff immediately turned the car around and headed for the hospital. After the seizure had passed, Max went completely limp and wouldn't respond to me in any way. Again, it was awful, and if I hadn't kind of known what to expect because of Weston's experience I would have been even more frantic than I was. Time seemed to stop and I thought we would never arrive at the ER. When we finally did, Max revived, quite angry. I was never so thankful to hear crying in my life. We called some friends to come get the big kids and then spent the next three and a half hours trying to comfort a very sad boy who was being put through a battery of tests, while waiting to hear the news. All the tests came back negative and there was only a slight ear infection in one ear. They prescribed an antibiotic, and Max has been feeling great ever since.

The doctor told us that this just sometimes happens with young children and no one really knows why it happens to some kids but not others. He gave the best explanation for the phenomenon . He said that it is kind of like a "brain sneeze." A sneeze is your body's way of getting yucky stuff out of the body. A febrile seizure is the brain's way of resetting the signals in the brain. In young children (under 5 or so) all the electrical connections in the brain aren't fully developed. A fever signals the brain to do something to fix whatever the problem is. A rapid increase in fever (regardless of the actual degrees) causes the brain to try to do something quickly. All the electrical impulses come at once and that's when you get the "brain sneeze," which causes the body to seize. The seizure usually lasts a couple of minutes (or a couple of eternities, if you're the mom) and then the signals are reset and ready to start over. It would have been wonderful if I could have learned this fascinating information some other way.

And to conclude the crazy health issues, I will tell you this. I woke up this morning with a headache. Half-way through the church service, not only was my head throbbing, but my ear was also throbbing and I couldn't hear. I suspected that I also had an ear infection of my own, but without all the drama of Max's. I dreaded the thought of trying to get a doctor's appointment and then having to take antibiotics for a week. When we got home, I looked up some home remedies online and found one that I thought was worth trying (and several that sounded a little too kooky for me). It was suggested to simply pour hydrogen peroxide into the ear and leave it for about 8 minutes. The results were immediate! That, combined with a short nap, had me feeling almost as good as new.

Crazy, crazy stuff. But, thankfully, all with happy endings!

La Vida Loca Part 1: Cars

Start here and read in reverse order.

Early in October, the brakes on Jeff's car got to be in such a bad state that we considered driving his vehicle unsafe. A trip to the mechanic was soon to follow. The brakes, along with the regularly scheduled maintenance that was due, added up to more than the car was worth. So, we became a one-car family for a few days while we decided if it would be best to fix or to replace. We test drove new cars and looked at used cars online. We ultimately concluded that it was still cheaper to fix than to replace, so we went with that option.

Meanwhile, the "check engine" light came on on the van. This we ignored completely, since our van had been diagnosed long ago with a bum sensor, which would cause the light to come on even if there wasn't a problem. Confirming our belief that this was in fact the problem, the light on the dash would come on and go off willy-nilly. Then, the air-conditioner seemed not as cool as it should be (or was it just the 99.9% humidity outside?) and the van seemed to be idling pretty hard, making us think that this time there might, in fact, be a problem. But, as we were already down to one car, we decided to wait on the trip to the mechanic.

With Jeff's car out of the shop, we found that life happened, and we actually needed both of our cars, so we put off the trip to the mechanic further. Eventually, we could put it off no more. As we were headed out of town last weekend, the van overheated and we knew it was time to give in. We had only gone about 5 miles or so, so after we got it cooled down, we returned home, repacked all of our things into the car (minus the bikes, which the kids were very disappointed about) and drove the van straight to the mechanic. Then we left on our merry way in our functional, though cramped, remaining vehicle.

Around closing time, the mechanic called with the news, none of it good. Just to run the necessary tests was going to run us somewhere around $600, and then, they were pretty sure it was the motor that would need to be replaced. And then, they were pretty sure that there was also a transmission problem. Cha-ching, cha-ching.

Once again, we found ourselves talking about fixing or replacing, but this time it seemed more logical to replace. We have not done this yet, but we are close. We have retrieved our van from the shop, but are still essentially a one-car family. The van can be driven, but I'm paranoid about it. And we have had a hard time deciding what to replace it with. I think we have reached a conclusion and will probably buy a newer version of the van itself. We have ordered one from CarMax, which should be here in a week or so. We will drive it, just to make sure, but are expecting it to be "the one."

It would be nice if our car saga ended there but, alas, that is not the case. On Friday, I took Ruth to the library in our best-bet car while the boys were napping. We got the books and returned to the car only to find a nice little note tucked under the wiper: "In case you can't see it, your right rear tire is flat..." A quick inspection confirmed that this was not written by someone given to hallucinations. Flat as a flitter, as my mom would say (though I confess I don't have a clue what that means). So, I called my hubby to inform him of the good news and to see if the boys were still sleeping. They were, and neither of us wanted them to miss out on that precious nap time, so we began to talk through the options. Unbelievably, I heard myself say after a few minutes, "Well, we could just walk home." I consulted Ruth and she was more than up for it, saying, "You mean we can walk home from the library?!!" It was a beautiful day and we only had a distance of about 2-3 miles to cover, so off we went on foot. Thank goodness for Kingwood's fabulous trail system. Ruth was a horse, trotting along the path. Then, she was Tarzan swinging from the trees. She collected strange fruits and berries and other treasures along the way. In a word, she had a blast. It was an excellent lesson in perspective for me. Something I thought of as a curse, she immediately turned into a blessing, and it was hard for me not to catch the spirit. The tire was fixed later in the day, and so ends the story of the crazy car game we've been playing this month.

La Vida Loca

In life, things happen. Any one of them, taken alone, might not make for a crazy life. But added all together, and in succession, they can make one's life quite crazy. What follows in the next few posts is a series of events that have taken place in our lives in the last month, which have certainly made us feel that we are living La Vida Loca.

Renaissance Festival

Sparkling Floors

My kids could play upstairs all day long, and they often do. Upstairs is kid territory. There are books and games and toys galore. There is paper and a white board and all kinds of art supplies. There is a keyboard. There are even potties to splash in. But, for some reason, if I need to mop the floor and I send them up there, they hang around the landing yelling every 10 seconds or so, "Can we come down now?!" I kept them at bay as long as I could today, but inevitably, they made their way down to the freshly mopped floor. Not ten minutes after they arrived, Max knocked the trash can over and spilled all of its icky, sticky contents on the previously shiny floor. Fine. I clean up. We move on. And moving on for me was to go upstairs and put the boys laundry away. In the midst of this, I heard a strange banging sound, but no crying or whining followed, so I let it go. Then I heard another unfamiliar sound, which brought me to the landing. From my perch, I could see that the entire freshly mopped entry way was covered with water. I rushed downstairs for a closer look, asking as I came how the water got on the floor. Ruth suggested it might have come from the potty, but nothing looked amiss in the bathroom, and for the life of me I couldn't find a vessel that could have contained the spilled water, though I suspected she was probably right and was secretly thankful that I had just cleaned the toilet. Then, I noticed that the entire floor was sparkling--not in the same way it had been after I mopped, but with glitter. And then I surmised that Max had busted open a plastic snow globe he found in his sister's room earlier. And just as my blood was beginning to boil, Max came around the corner with a wet, glittery broom and wet, glittery pants to match. He was apparently coming back take another stab at cleaning up his mess. He had already delivered the broken snow globe to the foot of the trash can, dragging the broom behind him, and was now making his best effort to take care of the rest. My heart melted at the sight. He knew he had done wrong, but he was trying to do right. It was so sweet, I just couldn't be mad. And, technically, my floors are still sparkling.

What Little Boys Are Made Of

*Those are worms my boys are having so much fun with.