Mind Your Manners

I try to teach my children good manners.

I try to teach them that their actions speak louder than their words. (That is, unless they are trying to smack each others heads off and then I confuse them and tell them to use their words.)

I try to teach them to be polite.

When we were leaving church this past Sunday, I asked my son Kyle to scoot on ahead of me and open the door since I had my hands full of baby and bag and all other sorts of crap. He did. I expect this of him. I walked out and he began to follow. He looked back and noticed that there was another women with her two small children coming behind him. He ran back, grabbed the door, flung it open and then held it for them to walk out before letting the door swing back closed. I smiled.

We were at the doctors office yesterday. Mikaily and Evan were playing in the playhouse that is there. There are two small chairs in this house. There was another little girl that came in who was maybe 3. She walked into the playhouse and immediately my daughter stood up and asked her if she wanted one of the little chairs to sit on. I smiled.

This morning Evan got up and said "Mommy!!!!!! I am hungry. I want a waffle." I gently reminded him that he needed to ask the proper way. His response was "Mommy, will you just me the waffle. NOW!"

Well, 2 out of 3 isn't bad.

The Case of the Missing X-Rays

My cell phone rings. (Well, actually my cell phone didn't "ring" so much as "sing." Because, cell phones don't really "ring" anymore. If you asked my children what sound a phone makes, they would probably start singing "I'm bringing sexy back" and do some sort of little dance to go along with it. But back to the point)

"Hi!" I answer.
"Did I put Laney's X-ray on the table?" I hear my husband's voice ask.(Yes, my baby had to have an X-ray because her soft spot is closing early...but we got it looked at and everything is fine)
"Ummm, no. It's not on the table."
"What about the island? The couch? The bedroom? By the dog's dish? (Seriously??? By the dog's dish?!?!)
"No. No. Not there. Ummm, no. They have to be in your car. Did you ever bring them in last night?"
"I can't remember bringing them in. But they are not in my car."
"They have to be. They aren't in the house anywhere."
"Well, I guess I left them in the car last night and my doors were unlocked....."
"Jason, no one got into your car and stole Laney's x-rays and nothing else. They have to be somewhere and I don't have time to deal with this right now."


On Monday night, I had asked my husband to go pick up the films after work so I didn't have to drag all the kids into the office for 30 seconds to get the X-Rays and then drag them all back out and into the van. I figured that should be doable for him. She had already had the actual x-rays taken, so he was just picking them up and driving home with them. Not too hard, right? Well, apparently it is.
I had a thousand other things I was doing that morning (like fighting with the insurance company to get the visit to the neurosurgeon covered while taking care of 4 children) so eventually Jason said he would come home from work to look for the illusive x-rays.

Fast forward an hour and a half. The front door opens and I can hear the sound of the garbage truck driving away. Jason walks in, with a large blue and white envelope in his hands.

"You found it! I told you it had to be in your car."
"Uhhhhhhh, it wasn't in my car."
"It wasn't in your car? Well then where was it?"
"Well, it was sitting int he middle of the road."
"WHAT?!?!"

I ran over and grabbed the envelope out of his hands and started laughing. Look closely at the picture.





Can ya see all the small bumps and tears? Apparently, he had gotten out of his car the night before and set the envelope on the roof while he got something else out and forgot about it. When he drove off that morning, it had fallen off and landed in the middle of the road, where I am sure numerous cars (including mine and his) had run over it.........oh, and the garbage truck as well. I told him he was coming to the doctors appointment with me, because I was not going to be the one that looked like a dork trying to explain that story. He agreed to come with me, but was conveniently in the bathroom with Evan when they asked for the films. Coincidence? I think not! They said they were still in good enough shape to look at.

Oh well. I think I'll still keep him around. After all, he's the one that does the dishes every night.

One Amazing Little Girl

I know that most of you have probably heard this story already at this point, but it is so amazing I had to write a little something about it. There is an adorable little girl, who is 17 months old now, who can read. That's right....read. She doesn't do the words by sight or memorization, she can actually read them. Sheesh!! I was happy when my children were 17 months old and actually listen to the books I read TO them rather than eat them. Go HERE and check it out for yourself. I would normally just post the video on my blog, but I don't feel like braking any copyright laws today.

Lord, Grant Me Patience

Well, I am glad to say that Mikaily is feeling much better. Wanna know how I know this?? Yesterday, she would. not. SHUT. UP. (ahhhhhhwww, I said "the S" woooord!)

"Mommy, why is it raining? My friend at school said the clouds are crying. But I don't think clouds can cry. Do you think clouds can cry? Clouds can't cry because they aren't people. Unless there are people on them. But I don't think you can stand on a cloud. If you standed on a cloud you would fall through. Plus, how could you get on the cloud anyways? What if you could get on a cloud. Would that be fun? I think I would be scared and not do that. Do you think a bird would be up there? What if it hit you because it didn't see you because you shouldn't be on a cloud."

Good gravy! Breathe child, BREATHE!!!! She has been having some problems with her asthma and we have been using her inhaler. I don't know about the rest of you who have a child with asthma, but when I give her that inhaler she goes PSYCHO!

We went out to eat for dinner last night. She started looking through the kids menu and went on another tirade.

"There is only one thing I can eat here. Just the chicken. I can't eat the Macaroni because it has real cheese on it. I can't eat the turkey because it has gooey stuff in it. I can't eat the eggs and toast because eggs are gross and they won't let me get anything instead of them and I don't like toast either because it is too crunchy. I can't get this because they might burn it. I can't get that because it is stringy. Blah blah blah......"

She went on and on. She probably told us about 20 or 30 foods on the menu she wouldn't eat and why.

Then, last night, Kyle was saying his prayer before he went to bed and it went a little something like this:
"Heavenly Father. Thank you for today. Thank you for my family. Thank you for dinosaurs. Thank you that Evan can stop talking when I am saying my prayer. Bless that the bad guys can't get me tonight. Bless that mommy and daddy can't be mean to me when I am bad. Amen."

This morning, I took Kyle to school. I had to take Alaina and Evan with me. Since he is in preschool, I have to walk him to the classroom. Evan decided half way up the sidewalk that his legs were broken and he couldn't walk anymore. I didn't want to cause a big scene by screaming at him, so I shifted Alaina to one hip and picked Evan up and plopped him on the other and carried both of them back to the car (which is a pretty LONG walk).

I said my own little prayer this morning as I was driving home...it went a little something like this.........

"Lord, grant me patience.......BUT HURRY!"

UPDATE

Quick update.....Mikaily is doing better today. She has started eating again and was up and playing today. She is still complaining of some pain in her stomach, but it is not nearly as bad as it was. Thanks for all the well-wishes!

You Know What I LOVE????

You know what I LOVE....???

I LOVE it when you go to the grocery store for milk, and you end up with ice cream, NyQuil, some light bulbs, yogurt, pretzels, air freshener and a bag of oreos as well. Oh, and I LOVE it even more when you buy all that crap and you get home and realize you FORGOT the milk.

I LOVE it when you drag your butt out of bed when the alarm goes off and hop in a not-so-hot shower in hopes it will wake you up quickly and after it has done it's job and you are wide awake you look at the clock on the microwave and realize your toddler had been playing with your clock in the bedroom and you are up an hour early.

I LOVE it when you are flipping through channels on the radio and hear your favorite song, only to find out it is a commercial, so you only get to hear two thirds of a line of that song.

I LOVE it when you are sitting at home and enjoying the quiet, only to realize it is quiet because your 5 year old and your 3 year old have decided to get the spaghetti noodles down out of the pantry and make spaghetti in the bathroom sink.

I LOVE it when you notice your 8 month old has something in her mouth and you dig it out, and learn she has been sucking on the dog's food.

I LOVE it when you spend an hour slaving over a hot stove to make a deliciously healthy meal to help your family grow up big and strong, only to have 3 quarters of them gag at the thought of putting it anywhere near their lips.

I LOVE it when you are at the store and the salesclerk who is maybe 2 years younger than you are calls you "Ma'am."

I LOVE it when you are walking across the wood floor and your bare foot slips on something and you look down and realize you are sliding through a puddle of baby vomit.

I LOVE it when you open the refrigerator door and are knocked back by some pungent odor that is coming from who knows what that has been in there for who knows how long.

And.....I LOVE it even more when all of this happens in a 24 hours period!!!!!!!

Man, I Hate Vomit!

It's 2 am on Thursday morning.

"Mommy. MOMMY!" I hear Mikaily say. "Mommy, my tummy hurts."

That was the beginning....

I spent the next 9 hours sitting by my daughter. I rubbed her back and held her hair out of the way as she proceeded to throw up over and over and over again. She kept saying that her tummy hurt. It got worse and worse until it was so bad she was curled up in a ball screaming in pain.

For those who don't know, Mikaily was a preemie. She was 8 weeks early and has had numerous medical problems. When she was born, she had something called a brain bleed. The bleed (which happens when those tiny blood vessels burst) caused some scarring that closed off the tiny tube in her head that would normally drain fluid out of her brain. Her brain began to swell. They had to put in a small tube, called a shunt, that goes from her brain, down the back of her head, around the side of her neck, down the center of her breastbone and into her stomach, where it drains all that extra fluid. (Isn't modern medicine AMAZING?!?) She had this shunt placed when she was 3 weeks old. She weighed barely 3 pounds at the time and was only 16 inches long.

So, when Mikaily was in so much pain and was throwing up so much, I decided I needed to call the doctor. We took her in. They told us we needed to immediately take her to the Children's hospital here. They told us it was one of three things....
1. A nasty virus
2. Appendicitis
3. Her shunt


We were so scared. I took her over to the ER. I looked at my beautiful baby girl as we were waiting in the ER. She looked so weak. Her skin was pale. Her lips barely had any color and were so dry they looked like they were cracking already. She was not in good shape. They decided they needed to start an IV right away. They stuck her once.....her vain blew immediately. They tried a second time in the other arm....same thing. They called someone else.....someone with more experience. She tried and was, for a third time, unsuccessful. They decided we would have to try and give her fluids by mouth, very slowly. I spent 5 hours that night, waking her up every 10 minutes, trying to get a teaspoon at a time into her. They had given her some medicine to stop the vomiting. Thank God it worked.

They ran a bunch of tests. They did X-rays and CT Scans and ultrasounds and bloodwork. After all that, they decided they couldn't really tell us exactly what was causing the pain, but they decided it wasn't her shunt or appendicitis. They did tell us that they think she might be outgrowing her shunt, which means brainsurgery to replace it is most likely in her near future. They said it sounded like food poisoning, but she hadn't eaten anything that the rest of the family hadn't. Their best guess was that it was a nasty virus that hit her harder because she has a weakened immune system. I didn't care, as long as they could make her better.

We spent two days in the hospital. She is doing better now. She is still not eating well and is still not really back to being properly hydrated yet. I am thinking we still have a long couple days ahead of us. I am tired, I am hungry, my house looks like a tornado hit it and I don't care. I am going to go snuggle my baby girl and be thankful that she is home.

And like a true mommy blogger, I had my camera with me.....

Just FYI....My husband came to keep me company on Saturday after I had stayed up all night long with Kaily in the super uncomfy hospital chair waking her up every ten minutes to help her feel better while he was at home sleeping in our BED..... Isn't he a sweetheart?

After two days of eating absolutely nothing they gave her this big menu to choose from and out of everything she chose....a corndog??!

Here she is leaving the hospital looking MUCH perkier...