Wednesday, March 23, 2011
3 weeks feels like for-ev-er
It's been nearly 3 weeks since I blogged. My excuses entail the standard jerk reasons: our computer broke, camera batteries dead, blah blah blah. Really I was just too dang tired. We have been go-go-go lately and with sickness, school, classes... by 8pm when the kiddies are asleep, I usually still have dinner to make, shows to watch, laundry to fold. I just needed a break from blogging... but now... I'm back!
Lots of exciting things have happened: Jack grew to the size of a 5 year old, Eamon started music classes, Jack contracted Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, we got a new computer, Matt and I both got smart phones (hello 21st century!!!), Matt is working for a new company, Mimi and Poppy came for a visit, we went to a Cardinals spring training game, I did a spring cleaning/garage sale, my veggie garden has grown leaps and bounds, and, last but not least, I dislocated Eamon's elbow today.
So let's start backwards... Yes, I dislocated Eamon's elbow today. It's also called Nursemaid's elbow. I was trying to pull him up on the bed. I thought I was being safe by pulling by his forearms and not his wrist. Obviously I am much misinformed. I heard a most horrific POP sound and then he started crying. He didn't cry non-stop, but something was definitely wrong with his arm. He didn't move it for over 7 hours. Anytime you touched it he would cry but in between he was fine.
The doc sent us right away to get x-rays which sounds a little over dramatic in hindsight. Funny thing is that just last week Eamon fell off a slide from pretty high up. He flipped midair and landed right on that arm on a "safety floor." He cried a bit but there wasn't any long lasting results so I figured he was fine. Then Mommy-Guilt started creeping in. Maybe he has a hairline fracture..... what if his arm grows abnormally because its broken I never got it set... what if he's in constant pain and I was just calling him cranky... It's unavoidable and I'm usually pretty good at assuaging my guilt. So the x-ray event wasn't so bad after all. Well, minus the $500 deductible we had to pay. Small price to pay for saving me from a lifetime of arm guilt if you ask me. Don't ask Matt how he feels about it.
So we head over to the doctor's office and we see the pediatrician. 3 lollipops and a couple of one-fisted goldfish handfuls later, Eamon is feeling pretty good. I even saw him move his shoulder a bit. Then she says she suspects Nursemaid's Elbow and grabs onto his arm. I will spare you from the next part, but let's just say I was happy that no one patients were in the building to hear it. They would think very bad things of the nurse practitioner.
E's pretty mad at this point. He won't let either of us even close to his arm. He walks out to the waiting room while we wait for the x-rays to confirm no broken bones. Then I see it: he bends his elbow back and forth, he accidentally puts weight on his arm and whimpers just a bit. I think that did the trick. We make it home and he's happy to see his brother and Daddy. We sit on the chair to nurse and cuddle and about 10 minutes later he reaches over to pat my face with his right arm!!! I was relieved. I will NEVER pull on his arm again. MOMMY FAIL.
Instead of writing the next Moby Dick, I'll just present you with the past 3 weeks in a photo montage. I downloaded these off Facebook so the sizing is going to be off. Sorry. I said I liked technology, I didn't say I was good at it.
I think I'm going to try something new for my blog: Twitter. I signed up for an account a few weeks ago, and, all in all I think it's a pretty scary place. BUT you have the ability to upload photos, make them public, and I can have a badge on the sidebar of the blog that will show my latest Twitter updates. Those of you not on Facebook are really missing out on some adorable pictures that I capture during the day. I'll keep working on it and let you know how it turns out. Tata!
Lots of exciting things have happened: Jack grew to the size of a 5 year old, Eamon started music classes, Jack contracted Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, we got a new computer, Matt and I both got smart phones (hello 21st century!!!), Matt is working for a new company, Mimi and Poppy came for a visit, we went to a Cardinals spring training game, I did a spring cleaning/garage sale, my veggie garden has grown leaps and bounds, and, last but not least, I dislocated Eamon's elbow today.
So let's start backwards... Yes, I dislocated Eamon's elbow today. It's also called Nursemaid's elbow. I was trying to pull him up on the bed. I thought I was being safe by pulling by his forearms and not his wrist. Obviously I am much misinformed. I heard a most horrific POP sound and then he started crying. He didn't cry non-stop, but something was definitely wrong with his arm. He didn't move it for over 7 hours. Anytime you touched it he would cry but in between he was fine.
The doc sent us right away to get x-rays which sounds a little over dramatic in hindsight. Funny thing is that just last week Eamon fell off a slide from pretty high up. He flipped midair and landed right on that arm on a "safety floor." He cried a bit but there wasn't any long lasting results so I figured he was fine. Then Mommy-Guilt started creeping in. Maybe he has a hairline fracture..... what if his arm grows abnormally because its broken I never got it set... what if he's in constant pain and I was just calling him cranky... It's unavoidable and I'm usually pretty good at assuaging my guilt. So the x-ray event wasn't so bad after all. Well, minus the $500 deductible we had to pay. Small price to pay for saving me from a lifetime of arm guilt if you ask me. Don't ask Matt how he feels about it.
So we head over to the doctor's office and we see the pediatrician. 3 lollipops and a couple of one-fisted goldfish handfuls later, Eamon is feeling pretty good. I even saw him move his shoulder a bit. Then she says she suspects Nursemaid's Elbow and grabs onto his arm. I will spare you from the next part, but let's just say I was happy that no one patients were in the building to hear it. They would think very bad things of the nurse practitioner.
E's pretty mad at this point. He won't let either of us even close to his arm. He walks out to the waiting room while we wait for the x-rays to confirm no broken bones. Then I see it: he bends his elbow back and forth, he accidentally puts weight on his arm and whimpers just a bit. I think that did the trick. We make it home and he's happy to see his brother and Daddy. We sit on the chair to nurse and cuddle and about 10 minutes later he reaches over to pat my face with his right arm!!! I was relieved. I will NEVER pull on his arm again. MOMMY FAIL.
Instead of writing the next Moby Dick, I'll just present you with the past 3 weeks in a photo montage. I downloaded these off Facebook so the sizing is going to be off. Sorry. I said I liked technology, I didn't say I was good at it.
And what
Ice cream treat after finding out why his tongue was swollen and it hurt so bad for him to eat. Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, which is actually a virus, ran its course in about 5 days. He had sores on his tongue and down his throat and consequently didn't eat solid food for over 3 days. He lost a pound in a week. He's well recovered now.
garage sale - good bye baby stuff!
Cards spring training.. Jack's second game
At Music Together class
Jack's new shoes that he picked out. I tried to get him to like the shark ones, but he said "These shoes are for me, Mommy." He can put them on himself and he will wear them. That's all I care about.
Another sick face. Baths were soothing to him. On this day he spent almost 1.5 hours in the bath midday
See my garden grow
cucumber tendrils are so cool. It's like they grow overnight
Baby all wrapped up and waiting for the x-rays. He was comfortable enough to take a little nap, too.
I call this one: "Lollipop Dead Arm"
It's moving!!! Moving to place chicken nuggets in his mouth, of course
I think I'm going to try something new for my blog: Twitter. I signed up for an account a few weeks ago, and, all in all I think it's a pretty scary place. BUT you have the ability to upload photos, make them public, and I can have a badge on the sidebar of the blog that will show my latest Twitter updates. Those of you not on Facebook are really missing out on some adorable pictures that I capture during the day. I'll keep working on it and let you know how it turns out. Tata!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Happy 3rd Birthday Jackson!
Jack's 3rd birthday came and went this past Monday with no blog post. Bad Mommy. We had a huge birthday weekend extravaganza that lasted Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On Saturday we had the 3rd annual joint birthday party with Jax, Isaac and Lucy at our local park. There was a bounce house, a bug hunt and a t-shirt craft. Here are just a few pictures from my friend Leslie at Cherubic. My computer broke it's flux capacitor and is laid to rest. I'm blogging from Matt's work computer and I feel weird about uploading my pictures on here. I don't want a greasy NASA monkey fiddling with junk. Just how I feel, man.
(I'll post my pictures later)
On Sunday we had our home birthday party which was really low key. Jack got a new remote control monster truck and a painting easel. Awesome presents! I made strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting at Jack's request. I love that he picked the same birthday cake that I always picked growing up.
Monday was Jack's actual birthday and it was packed full of goodies. First we went to a lovely park and drove his monster truck around and flew a kite with friends. Had a DaDonals (McDonalds) smoothie on the way home, his favorite treat. Surprise dinner with Daddy at Fishlips restaurant up at the port where we got to see a cruise ship passing by, dolphins, and he fed the seagulls his chicken. Boats are his new thing. After dinner we had to pickup Uncle Steven from his new job as a tire and lube technician at Walmart (yay!!). Jack loves watching "chanics" or the mechanics and the cars going up and down on the lifts. Throw in a little frozen yogurt last minute birthday snack and wrap up a 3 year old's perfect day.
We love you Jackson. You light up the room and our lives with your joy. Such a sweet amazing little balloon head boy.
(I'll post my pictures later)
On Sunday we had our home birthday party which was really low key. Jack got a new remote control monster truck and a painting easel. Awesome presents! I made strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting at Jack's request. I love that he picked the same birthday cake that I always picked growing up.
Monday was Jack's actual birthday and it was packed full of goodies. First we went to a lovely park and drove his monster truck around and flew a kite with friends. Had a DaDonals (McDonalds) smoothie on the way home, his favorite treat. Surprise dinner with Daddy at Fishlips restaurant up at the port where we got to see a cruise ship passing by, dolphins, and he fed the seagulls his chicken. Boats are his new thing. After dinner we had to pickup Uncle Steven from his new job as a tire and lube technician at Walmart (yay!!). Jack loves watching "chanics" or the mechanics and the cars going up and down on the lifts. Throw in a little frozen yogurt last minute birthday snack and wrap up a 3 year old's perfect day.
We love you Jackson. You light up the room and our lives with your joy. Such a sweet amazing little balloon head boy.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Vegetable Garden
Or as Jack would say, "begetable garden." I took a gardening class this past weekend which finally pushed me over the edge to create a garden. The kids are old enough now so I have at least a few minutes a day to go outside. Jack is REALLY into learning about new things and is very hands on. He constantly asks me all day if we could go outside and work on our begetable garden. It's really adorable.
I made a raised bed veggie garden in which you don't actually plant the seeds in the ground... its a raised bed. Duh! Good thing too because if you dig just a few inches below the ground it's all sand and water. Not very conducive to growing edible plants. We used the "lasagna method" to create our bed. This method uses different layers of green material and brown material built on top of each other to create a nutrient dense soil. It was also very easy to prepare once you have all the supplies at hand. Here's how we did it:
I made a raised bed veggie garden in which you don't actually plant the seeds in the ground... its a raised bed. Duh! Good thing too because if you dig just a few inches below the ground it's all sand and water. Not very conducive to growing edible plants. We used the "lasagna method" to create our bed. This method uses different layers of green material and brown material built on top of each other to create a nutrient dense soil. It was also very easy to prepare once you have all the supplies at hand. Here's how we did it:
Find some big strong guys to forage some free materials
make a manageable sized garden
gather your materials: green material like fresh cuttings from plants, grass clippings, etc, brown material like dead leaves, bark, paper, hay and cardboard/paper
He's getting tired of me mentally composing my blog posts as I'm taking pictures
Let's get started: lay down cardboard, paper, newspapers, junk mail, magazines, whatever you have. This will keep the weeds down and your soil separate from the actual dirt under the bed
I forgot a few of my materials: top soil and SUPER POO! which is composted horse manure. Apparently poop is really good for gardens
Find some cute kids to help
Take some time out to play with the love bugs
This is part of my "green" layer - fresh food material. No diary or meat
Throw down a layer of top soil
Another part of our "green" layer
Now a "brown layer" of super poo
Hay is part of the "brown" layer
Water it down to smush the layers - yes, that's a technical term. Barley is obsessed with the hose
More soil
My precious
Gotta play a little bit while working
He thinks he's a dog
Add a couple inches of top soil to the top and water it all down. It looks like a lot but it will compress to make a very healthy soil.
We planted lettuce, fennel, parcel, kohlrabi, mini carrots, cucumber, summer squash, green onions, basil, and broccoli. Everything is doing great and I can't wait to show you pictures of all my glorious sprouts!
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