Summertime

Time is going by so fast. I can't believe my little girl is a first grader! Alyssa absolutely loved kindergarten. She had the best teacher in the whole world, and I think she had the greatest experience to start school with. She loves Miss Chidester!

We've been having a great time this summer bumming around the house, taking Brian to/from school, going to the library, and drinking strawberry smoothies. There have been so many things I've wanted to blog about, it's just been crazy finding the time. We're still here, though, and we're having a great time.

Indulgence

I like to eat. I like to eat good food. There are times in my life when I get too busy to eat or when I just don't feel like eating, and there are times in my life when I just love to eat.

I'm in one of those times.

I made a cake last weekend. Ethan, Marcus, and I have stayed home from church the last couple of weeks, because Ethan's been too sick to go to nursery. So when we were home making dinner, I thought I would surprise Brian with a cake. Now, Brian doesn't like cake all that much. He'll have a piece, and maybe another one the next day, but there are so many other desserts he would prefer to eat besides cake. But this was one of those times that I fooled myself into thinking that Brian would just be tickled to come home and have some cake. (Like when I was shopping at Costco and called home, jokingly saying "I need an excuse to buy this chocolate cake," and Brian joked back, "Well, I was just thinking how much I would love to have a chocolate cake," and even though I knew that he was joking, I said to the kids, "Kids, we're going to surprise Dad with a chocolate cake," and I honestly made myself believe that I was buying the cake for him.) So back to last Sunday. I made a delicious white cake with buttercream frosting that actually turned out to be too sweet, but was still wonderful. There were days this week that I would have a piece of cake for breakfast, and a piece of cake for lunch...and a piece of cake for snack. The kids had a couple of small pieces, but we all know who made the cake disappear.

And I've decided that we're going to go to McDonalds for an ice cream cone every Friday so the kids have a chance to run around somewhere out of the rain/air conditioned where they're fenced in. We've gone the last two Fridays, and it's gotten to where we can't pass McDonalds without Ethan crying if we don't pull into the parking lot. But I think we're going to cut back on the number of cones we buy. Ethan hasn't been eating his, and I have more than happily gotten rid of his leftovers, if you know what I mean.

And lastly, what made me think of this post, is when I was eating lunch today, I decided to grab a root beer from the fridge, and while I was drinking that root beer, I actually caught myself thinking, "Oh, wow! This root beer is really good." Most of the time I would actually prefer to drink water, but I really enjoyed that root beer. Man, was it good.

So I've decided that it's time to cut back. No more cake for breakfast (next week) and I am going to indulge more on fruits and vegetables. We've got a watermelon downstairs that is cold in the fridge and just waiting to be devoured, and there's cherries and fresh pineapple and carrots. I should be eating stuff like that more.

I'd like to close with a quote from Alyssa. On December 3, 2006 she bore her testimony for the first time, and shared with the ward her love of good food. I don't know where she gets it.

What a Way to Pass a Birthday

Poor little Marcus puts everything into his mouth. I know that all babies put everything into their mouths, but Marcus is so much worse - he puts everything into his mouth. Just a few minutes ago I found him in the bathroom with the little round cover that goes over the bolts holding the toilet down (?) in his mouth. (Yuck, I know.) It was firmly stuck between his two bottom teeth that are already out and his two top teeth that are on their way out. It was completely stuck and holding his mouth wide open, but he didn't cry at all until I took it away.

We try so hard to keep things off of the floor and keep him monitored, so that he doesn't choke on anything, but with two other kids running around, that's a hard thing to do. Last Thursday, just before leaving to take Brian to clinic, I put him downstairs in the living room, then ran upstairs to herd Alyssa and Ethan to the car. After getting them strapped into their seats, I heard Marcus cry. It was a "Ow! That hurt!" sort of cry, but I figured that he just bumped his head on something, which is also something that he does all the time. So I picked him up, he had snot all over his face (Which was normal last week, too. He had a horrible cold.) so I wiped him off and headed for the car.

It was then I noticed that he was coughing, and after a few seconds, I noticed that he was choking. I figured he was coughing on snot of phlem, so I let him at it for a minute while I strapped him into his car seat, but when he was still coughing, I pulled him out again and held him upside down a bit, and pat his back. At this point, I still thought he was coughing on his snot, so I put him back in the car seat and ran inside to get the snot-sucker thing. When I sucked his snot, I noticed that there was some blood in it, but again, his throat could have just been irritated from his cold.

So this is when Brian came outside and realized that Marcus was really chocking on something. He did a finger sweep and didn't feel anything, then he actually stuck his finger in Marcus's throat, and he felt something in there, but when he felt it, it got pushed down into Marcus's stomach.

He wasn't chocking anymore, so he was doing fine. All was well. I mentally went though all of the things that could have been on our floor, and figured (and hoped) that it was probably a piece of stale food, and that's why it got stuck and tore his throat up on the way down.

Friday, June 6, Marcus turned seven months old. With it being a Friday, we picked Brian up from clinic, then went to the Compass Room theater to see "Horton Hears a Who." We all loved it, even Marcus, then we went home and headed to bed. It was exactly 8:06 (I know, because I looked at the clock just before) when Marcus started to cry a painful cry. We were trying to have scripture study, so I took him upstairs to change his diaper, hoping that would help. We got the kids ready for bed, Brian tucked them in, and Marcus was still crying and clinging to my shoulders. He wouldn't nurse - he just wanted to cling to me and cry. Poor kid.

We saw two options: 1) whatever he swallowed the day before was on its way out, or 2) he had an ear infection. Brian got out his ottoscope (how do you spell that?) and confirmed that his ear drums were inflamed, so that was probably it. Now, I've been lucky that none of my kids have ever had ear infections, so this was our first time dealing with it. (Or so we thought.)

We treated him for an ear infection for the next four hours. Brian ran to the store, and we put some drops in his ears. I nursed him when he was willing, but mostly, I just held him, rocked him, and let him sleep when he would. I took him up to our bed when he went to sleep, then at 12:20 (Again, I checked the clock. I do that.) he woke up crying. We put the drops in his ears, he let out a big poop, and cried some more.

I changed his diaper, and when I was wiping his bum, I saw something sticking out of it. I pulled it out, which made him cry even more (of course) and found that for the last four hours a 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch piece of hard, square-shaped tin foil had been working it's way through his system. Oh, it was so sad. It explained everything. After it was out, and his diaper was back on, he stopped crying, layed his head back, and went right to sleep.

For the record, I don't denounce Brian's diagnosis of the inflamed ear drums. They were probably inflamed from his cold, just not bad enough to make him hurt. Since this whole ordeal we've been watching closer than ever to make sure everything is kept off of the floor. Yesterday Alyssa came running up the stairs, yelling "Marcus has a green tongue!" and it turned out that he had swallowed a leaf that was on the floor. I've gotten pretty good at the baby Heimlich Maneuver since Thursday, and I was able to successfully get Marcus to cough up the leaf. We've definitely got to be careful, because this kid will eat anything.

"It's Not About Me...It's Not About Me..."

I just have to keep telling myself that. I've been telling myself that, but sometimes it's so easy to forget.

Life is so crazy-busy right now. We get up in the morning, take Brian to Beaverton so he can get a ride into Portland, come home, have breakfast...I get Marcus down for his nap, take a shower, get the kids lunch...then we take Alyssa to school, get Marcus down for his afternoon nap, clean a bit while keeping Ethan entertained, pick Alyssa up from school, have Alyssa do her homework, start dinner, pick up Brian in Beaverton, come home and have dinner, get the kids ready for bed, have scripture study, put the kids to bed...put the kids to bed again...and sometimes a third and fourth time, then I go to bed myself. Seriously, it's been so crazy that I missed Marcus's doctors appointment. Then I called to reschedule it, and missed that one, too. It's that bad.

I really don't mind all the rushing around, because like I keep telling myself, it's not about me right now. Right now, getting Brian to clinic and Alyssa to school and keeping Ethan from destroying the Claypool's house are the important things. It's just that sometimes I get a couple moments of rest where I think, "What about me?!?" And then I have to say it, again, "It's not about me right now."

See? I'm even typing it over and over again. I'm trying to drill it into my brain.

I've been trying to go running in the mornings with Jenny, but we both have kids and it usually turns out that the mornings that she makes it, I have a rough night and sleep in, and vice-versa. It's so fun when we both make it, though. And the mornings that I get to do that, I've had my "me" time, and I'm good for the rest of the day. I've discovered that it doesn't matter how early the kids get up in the morning - as long as I have a few minutes to myself before they get up, I'm good. I've got to be Carrie for a few minutes every day before I have to be Mom.

In a couple weeks Alyssa will be out of school, so we won't have to drive to Joseph Gale twice a day. And Brian just worked everything out with getting a second car, so as soon as we buy that, he can take himself to clinic every day. So hopefully things will slow down soon.