Time Change, Age Two & Teeth

I have a feeling that the individuals who instituted the time change, didn't have very young children. The time change is great if you have older kids or no kids, because you actually get to enjoy it. On the other hand, young kids don't adjust to the change quite as easily if at all. Samuel has done pretty well (with exception to this morning). Darius has not. He, unfortunately, is still getting up during the night (once in the middle and usually early morning). He normally goes back to sleep after the early morning feeding, except now that the time has changed. He's decided that he likes to be awake then, which means that I have to keep him company or he complains rather loudly. Needless to say, I've beat the sun the last few mornings. Hopefully he will start sleeping longer soon.

We bought Samuel a little flag on Saturday. It was in the clearance aisle at Wal-Mart for a dollar. He likes to carry it around and wave it proudly. He's about two weeks away from turning two and he's definitely hitting that notorious stage. It's fun because he's constantly learning new things. But at the same time, it's a struggle because he's learning that his way does not rule over all. We are just trying to stay consistent with him and making the effort to "catch" him being good.

Poor Darius is trying to cut three teeth right now. They are so close to popping through. He's pretty fussy and and will only settle down if I'm holding him. I'm hoping that the Tylenol will kick in and ease his discomfort. Hopefully they will come through soon, so I can get some things done.

Bwag, Calcu and more

Samuel has a fascination with "bwags". Otherwise known as flags. He loves to point them out as we drive. I think there is probably about 20 flags between our house and church and he tries to point at each one. He will keep saying the word until you answer him. His other cute pronunciation is "calcu" for calculator. He likes to play with it and watch the numbers as he pushes buttons. He is learning many new words and it is nice to be able to understand him a little more.

Darius is now getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. I think in another month or so he will be attempting to crawl. He loves to follow Samuel around when he is playing.

This weekend, our church is hosting it's annual conference. I am excited to go since I wasn't able to last year. The theme is on being filled with the Spirit. It will be a good time of ministering and hearing some great sermons. I hope to learn a lot from it.

1st Hospital Visit

Samuel had his first hospital visit this week. He woke up on Tuesday morning with a severe asthma attack that didn't respond to the breathing treatment that we gave him at home. We spent the morning in the doctor's office giving him 2 more breathing treatments. We were told we could try going home, but if he didn't improve then he would have to go to the hospital. Well, as we were leaving, he started wheezing really bad again. We were admitted around 10:45 am. He had to have a monitor attached to his big toe to keep track of his oxygen levels and heartbeat. He wanted no part of that. They had put a longer cord on it so he could move around, but it still didn't help. The rest of the day was spent receiving breathing treatments and several different rounds of medication (steroids and antibiotics). Throughout the day, his breathing would get a little better, but then he would get frustrated with the monitor or lack of mobility and throw a fit. That would cause his wheezing to come back and he'd get worse for a while. He spent the night there and was able to go home Wednesday morning, under the condition that if he needed any breathing treatments less than 3 hours apart, then we would have to come back. So far he's been doing well, and is back to his old self.

I can't even describe how upsetting the situation was for me. For him to be struggling to get his breath and then having to go to the hospital was very scary and nerve wracking. One of the worst times, was when I had to leave him for the night. I had to go pick up Darius from the babysitter's and head home. Darius is still getting up in the night to be fed, so I was unable to spend the night with Samuel in the hospital. Josh took over for me, but it was so hard to leave him. I felt like my heart was being ripped out when Samuel started crying hard as I left and I could hear him down the hall. The whole time I kept fearing the worst, meaning that his oxygen level would drop low enough for him to need oxygen by mask and him having to stay another day in the hospital. I was very surprised the next morning when I got to the hospital and I could hear him playing rather loudly before I even got to the room. He was literally bouncing off the walls when I got there. He was so hyped up on medication that he was just going crazy. It was a welcome sight considering how he had been the previous day.

There were a lot of people praying for us and we are very grateful for that especially since Samuel was able to go home after one day and hasn't had any trouble since. I am hoping that there won't be a "next time" and that we can get a better control over his asthma before it gets to that point.

The Perfect Mattress

There's a series of commercials lately from a mattress company that I really like. The basic idea is that life is chaotic, noisy, busy and overwhelming, but when you lie down on their mattress everything is transformed into a peaceful, quiet, relaxing place. I wish that was true. I would be the first in line to buy that mattress. The ideal is great. The boys get up early and make a lot of noise and I'm not ready to get up, I can just stay in bed. Darius decides that waking up is better than sleeping during the night, I can check on him and then go back to bed. Presto, the noise stops, I can sleep and life would be good.

Unfortunately, life does not work that way. Sometimes I wish that it did, but then I see the smiles and receive the early morning snuggles from my boys and realize that even though the day is starting much earlier than I had hoped, I have more of the day to enjoy with them. Besides, there is always nap time to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Crib Recall

I don't know how many of you have heard of the newest recall for babies/kids, but it is for cribs. So far, I have listened and payed attention to the recalls to make sure that I don't have any of the toys. Most of the toys are too old for my boys anyway, until this latest recall. I got to looking at our crib and we have the one that is being recalled. It's a little unnerving to be aware of this. Besides, don't recalled toys/furniture always happen to someone else? At least that's what I've always thought, until now. Today I did some more research on the company and found their website. They made it super easy to order the parts to correct the problem. Kudos to them! So we should be getting the new parts in a few weeks (hopefully sooner) and should be able to fix the problem. (Let's hope that the fixing process is as easy as the ordering process.) If there is a lesson to this, it is to pay attention to recalls since you may have the very item that is being recalled.

The way to my heart

There is the saying, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." The way to a woman's heart is flowers, chocolate, etc. I like flowers and chocolate just fine, but the real way to my heart is through ice cream. Yep, that's right, ice cream. I know, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to you, but it is to me. That's because I don't get ice cream very often. It is contraband in our household, due to Samuel's milk allergy.

Last night we were taking advantage of some good discounts in a local grocery store and we walked by the ice cream section. I glanced over at it (to see what I was missing) and Josh asked if I wanted some. I replied that I always wanted some, so he suggested that we get some. The words shocked me so I had to repeat them back to him. He affirmed what he said so we took our time picking out the right kind. Let me tell you, it was WONDERFUL. I don't care if you think that I'm silly, you try dealing with the food restrictions we have to on a daily basis and see how good something tastes after you haven't had it for a long while.

I mentioned in my last post about Darius crawling. He has gained quite a bit of speed since then. He now follows me around the house. When I go into Samuel's room to change his diaper, Darius isn't far behind. You can hear him coming and then all of a sudden he peeks around the door to the room with a smile on his face. He's so proud of himself and so am I.

Right now, I feel like I have a huge to-do list. The list includes cleaning, straightening, storing things, plus reading. The only time I have to do these things are when the boys are down for a nap, which doesn't leave much time. I feel guilty about doing some of these things in the evenings, because Josh is home and I want us to spend time as a family. Arrgghh! I need to make a list of what I need to do and then as I do it, I can mark it off. Maybe then I will feel like I'm accomplishing something. Although, I know that my list will continue to grow. I guess that is a never ending process. Hopefully I can at least not feel like I'm drowning. Oh well, such is life, I guess.

Waking up Jesus, Crying, Crawling and Salsa

Ever since Darius was very little, Samuel has tried to wake him up while sleeping. He likes to hit something with his hand (to make noise) and yell, "Daa" or something like it. He gets in trouble for it, but still likes to do it. He especially likes to try to wake Darius up in the car. We were reading a book (Away in a Manger) and came to the page where, "the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay", part is. Samuel hit his leg and yelled, "Daa" to try to wake him up. Josh and I started laughing. It was so funny that he was trying to wake up baby Jesus. Since then, he has done it a couple more times.

I blogged last week about Darius' crying and attributed it to him teething. Well, he's not teething, it's a phase he is going through right now. Any time you set him down to do some work (or because your arm is tired) and leave his sight for a second (or even stay within sight), he starts crying. He has a really good set of lungs on him. He can scream pretty good. The only thing that stops him is to hold him, which sometimes is impossible. We are getting used to him screaming, otherwise we would get nothing done. Samuel is a good big brother and tries to distract him with toys, but to no avail. I hope that this is a phase that passes quickly.

Darius has started army crawling now. We noticed it on Saturday. He especially likes to go after the things that he can't have (for instance the gardening magazines that Samuel strings all over the floor looking for apples). But he's starting to get faster and between rolling and crawling can get anywhere he wants quickly.

I had a first this weekend. I made my first batch of salsa. We have an abundance of cherry tomatoes and peppers (bell and anaheim). I didn't want them to go bad, so I used my mother-in-law's recipe. It turned out pretty good. I know there are some differences I will do next time, but for my first attempt it's pretty tasty. I'm sure that I will have another chance to make more this summer since our tomatoes and peppers are still producing. I am looking forward to this and hope to perfect the recipe even more.