Friday, October 28, 2011

Chili Season

Although I can't eat the chili myself (thanks to Jameson...have I mentioned that he doesn't digest well?), I entered into a chili contest at work. People paid $5.00 to sample and judge the chili's and all the benefits went to Operation Santa Claus. DES sponsors a few hundred kids each year through Operation Santa Claus.

Well there were three categories, beef, poultry, and vegetarian. I entered a veggie chili and...I won! I've never won anything before so I felt pretty darn proud of myself. I got a cool plaque some homemade oven mitts along with a chili chocolate bar (that I have hidden in my pantry and will dig into when I'm finally done nursing).

The only problem is that people keep asking me for the recipe and I have to tell them that between getting dinner made for the kids and getting the kids to bed, I threw a bunch of things into a pot and let it simmer. Not exactly an easy recipe to hand out!

Me with my winnings. And yes, this is taken in my cubicle at work with the depressing lighting and industrial concrete ceiling. Whoever said state workers have it easy have clearly not visited the west wing at DES!

The Boy is Getting Big!

He might not digest well and he might not be able to roll consistently from his back to his belly, but this kid is growing like a weed and loving sitting up...almost by himself! Our new favorite games are Eskimo kisses and him shaking his head "no" in response to me nodding my head "yes". I'll be concerned about him disagreeing with me once it's not so darn cute anymore!

Who knew tummy time could be so much fun? Why did I ever used to scream about it!

I've been watching Brody on Daddy's shoulders for 7 months now. It's finally my turn!

Yep, that's right...I can sit up almost all by myself!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Beech Hill Farm

As Winnie-the-Poo would say, it was a very, very blustery day, but we had been cooped up in the house too long and needed to stretch our legs so we headed to Beech Hill Farm to see the animals, walk around, and get what is probably our last ice-cream of the year.

Ry and JJ all bundled up.

Brody and the chickens.

Goats!

The boys


Buckwheat, the donkey.

Brody and the late afternoon sun.



JJ, Daddy, and the big, furry cows.


Look at that! A picture with all of us! AMAZING!

I got greedy and attempted another family photo...typical me, I chopped off some heads!

There is something about these pictures that I love. The way the sun is reflecting, the barn and animals in the background, and all of the boys that I love...these are magical to me!




Someone hasn't been letting us sleep at night...any guess who is making Daddy yawn?
 




And then we had to hit the ice cream barn for some treats! Jameson was mighty disappointed that he didn't get any for himself!


Eating frozen yogurt (come on people, did you really think Ryan would eat ice cream?) over your child's head and not getting a single drip on them is pure talent!


Watch out Daddy, someone is going to steal your cone!



One last climb on the rocks and run around the farm before heading home for supper...yes, that's right. There are some days when ice cream before supper is acceptable!






My precious baby boy...

What do you do when you are looking at your precious, healthy, happy, perfect, 6 month old baby boy innocently jumping in his jumperoo, and hear a nurse on the other end of the phone tell you that, if he gets the bug he's been exposed to, he will likely die? I'm serious...what are you supposed to do? How are you supposed to react? Because this is what happened to me seven days ago. I heard her words and looked to him, cooing and chewing on as many fingers as he could get in his mouth. He looked up at me, smiling and drooling and oblivious to the conversation being had about him...So what did I do? I flipped the F out!! F-L-I-P-P-E-D THE F OUT!!

Needless to say we had a bit of a scare in our house last week. One of the children at Jameson's "school", his nanny's oldest son actually, contracted haemophilus influenza. This is what the Hib vaccine is for. Her child was fully vaccinated, but it turns out this was some incredibly rare strain that isn't covered under the vaccine. It is incredibly rare to get H. influenza in the first place, but to get this crazy rare strain is nearly unheard of. Jameson was exposed to it 12 days ago. No one knows exactly how long the incubation period is because it is so rare, but now that he is 12 days out, the doctors are pretty confident that he will not get it. We are still giving him vitamin D, and elderberry syrup to help his little system fight it off, but I'm feeling more confident each day that he'll be OK.

Jameson was the biggest red flag out of all of the other children at his "school" because he is under a year old and is not vaccinated. The vaccination debate is quite a controversial one and not what I really want to discuss here. But I will say, because I always feel like I need to justify this decision, is that it was not a decision we took lightly. As a parent, you have to do your research, consult with doctors that you trust, and, most importantly I think, go with your gut. So we have decided to delay, space out, and separate childhood vaccinations as much as possible. That just works for us...whatever anyone else wants to do with their own children is just fine with me. From what I understand though, even if JJ followed the CDC vaccination schedule, he wouldn't have been fully vaccinated.

So it was the public health nurse for the state  that informed the nurse at my doctor's office that the majority of children under a year old who are not fully vaccinated die from this infection. After flipping out (did I mention that I flipped out?), we did a little research and found out that the real statistics show that approximately 50% of the children who contracted the infection got meningitis. Of those that got meningitis, between 2 and 5% of the cases were fatal. Those are still not feel good statistics, but a whole lot better than the majority of kids who get it die.

So I called up the good old public health nurse at the state to give her a piece of my mind and clarify a few of her (mis)statements and do you know what she said to me? She said, "well, the most important thing to discuss is getting your baby up to date on his vaccinations."  Really? That's the most important thing? You said my kid was probably going to die and the most important thing to talk about is a plan to get him up to date on his shots? Fuel for the fire my friends...fuel for the fire! 

So we had a not-so-friendly little chat about priorities in medical emergencies, unnecessarily scaring parents in an already scary situation, and the fact that karma is going to kick her in the ass for telling someone that their kid is going to die (ok, we didn't actually talk about that last one, but I had many, many thoughts about it!).

Thankfully, I hope, we are through this scare. We still have a long flu season ahead of us, but normal colds and flus I can pretty much handle...sort of...almost. What I don't understand is why this woman felt it was OK to give me the wrong information. Was it a scare tactic to get me to follow the CDC vaccination guidelines? Whatever the reason, she and I are not friends. And um, hello, the kid who got it was vaccinated! 

I just can't understand trying to make someone more worried than they already are and than they need to be, especially about their children. From the very first moment of your child's very first breath, your heart lives on the outside of your body. The world becomes a much bigger and much more threatening place than you had ever realized before. And it's wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time. Every bump and bruise, every sniffle and stomach bug, every hurt feeling...hurts us parents more than it hurts our children. So why anyone would try to make that hurt bigger, I just can't imagine.

I'll spare you all the rest of my thoughts, I'm sure by now you know I have many of them! I'll file the helpless feeling from that phone call along with the same helplessness that I felt during Brody's seizure two years ago and I'll deal with the pile of PTSD from having children somewhere down the line, when everyone sleeps through the night and I have two minutes to myself to process this life I'm living. Until then, I'll hug these babies tight, tickle their bellies, and hold their hands as long as they let me.

Feeling too serious? Well, here are a few pictures of JJ in his jumper while we were quarantined.

Jameson seems to love the jumperoo nearly as much as Brody did! Notice the fingers in his mouth? Nosh, nosh, nosh!
 
Brody can't miss a photo op with his brother!

And Sampson the wonder dog in a rare moment of being outside when he stops eating whatever he can get in his mouth and looks up. I mean seriously...why does he eat everything? I think he has pica!

Back in the jumperoo, blowing zurberts now! One of his favorite pastimes.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Jameson on the swings...

The title says is all. (And don't make fun of his big head...we can't find a hat that fits him. It's his big, beautiful brain that makes his head so big!)





Silly Puppy

Sampson is incredibly curious about the cat door. While I sometimes get frustrated because he gets into puppy trouble...he ate my flip-flops, he is drawn to Jameson's delectable cheeks as much as we are, he chewed part of my breast pump...I just love this sweet, silly pup.