A tEARful and Traumatic Afternoon

Now that Elizabeth is almost 28 months old, I decided I better finally do her 24 month well-baby visit. It was supposed to be a 20 minute appointment. Until the Dr. was looking in her right ear and said, "So she has tubes in this ear." "Um, no," I said slightly confused and alarmed. "Oh, well then she must have a hole in her eardrum." Increasingly alarmed and confused. Then he said, "Actually, I think it's a bead." A little less alarmed, not nearly as confused (this is kind of behavior is very normal for my children.) Then after a long wait for him to finish with another patient, he started to try to get it out. There was much screaming, crying, wailing and flailing, that led to the use of this.

May you never have to experience your child being put into one of these and then poked and prodded at for the next hour (after already being poked and prodded at for an hour), with the ear checker thingie and "alligator forceps" crammed in her tiny little ear hole. All the while a Dr., nurse, and lady with an alligator purse red gingham diaper bag, were hovered over her and holding her down.

She tried everything she could think of to get out of there, "Me all done." "Out of my bed" (the papoos), "I want Daddy," "Ouchie," "Docor poking me," "Heson go Fick-a-Fay with me" (I had promised her Chick-Fil-A when we got the bead out), "I get out five minute?" "Mommy get the bead out," "Mommy lay down with me" (because that's how we originally started, with me on my back and her on her back on top of me - didn't work so well), "Mommy, get me out."

Silent prayers were flying.

So when the Dr. FINALLY got the thing out, we were all so relieved.

Until he checked her ear one more time and said, "Oh Gosh (edited), there's another one." I said, "You're joking." "No." "You are lying," "I wish I was, do you want to see it?" "No, I believe you." Sigh.

So, it's back in the torture device for the poor little girl. Accept, they gave us a little break, in which she fell asleep on my shoulder, so this time we're doing it to an even crankier, grumpier child. Screaming all of the above things and more, "I wanna go sleep on Mommy's shoulder." "Alweady got the bead out." This time, the forceps weren't working, so he tried super gluing a skinny wooden dowel to it and pulling it out. That didn't work either (surprise, surprise.) So he finally decided to go with the nurses original suggestion (that I had expressed being most in favor of because it was the least intrusive) of irrigating it. So we unstrapped her, covered her and me in plastic, the nurse pumped some water into her ear and out it came. Now, why the heck didn't we try that in the first place? (Well, he had not wanted to do that because if it didn't work then we couldn't do the super glue thing because it would be too wet to adhere. But really did anyone have that much hope in the super glue idea?) Next time, let's just listen to the womenfolk in the first place. The whole thing could have been so much faster and so much less traumatic.

Then, just to make sure she would never, ever want to go back to the Doctor, they gave her a Hepititis vaccine. And after 2 1/2 hours, we finally got to leave.

She was asleep in minutes. I spent the whole drive home thinking, "I can understand why people drink in situations like this, and why the nurse came back from one of the "breaks" smelling like cigarette smoke." Instead I came home, cut myself a large piece of chocolate cake and watched a little Oprah, while taking lots of deep breaths, and telling myslef we'd go to Chick-Fil-A as soon as she woke up (really that bribe was as much for me as it was her).

Harrison (who Mina was thankfully able to pick up from school and take to her house until the whole ordeal was over) was quite concerned about the whole thing. We talked about it for a little while and then he went upstairs. It was awfully quiet and I started to wonder what was going on, so I went up to find him in bed with her. He said he wanted to take a nap with her. It really warmed my heart that he was worried about his little sissie and wanted to be near her.

She woke up pretty ornery and insistent on going to Fick-A-Fay (like I would have forgotten).

6 nuggets, a small fry, and several diet lemonades later, I was feeling much better, and so was she.

Until several children frantically came out of the play place telling me my daughter was stuck at the top and they couldn't get her to come down. I tried my darnedest to coax her down, the kids tried to help her down, Harrison tried to get her to come down the slide. But she was having none of it. Seriously, how much trauma can one 2 year old handle in a day? So, I climbed on up in there and rescued her. Let me tell you, those things are not made for people of my height, weight, or lack of flexibility. And it totally smelled like pee.

So, that was our crazy day. I told my mom, it made my top 5 list of traumatic experiences.

(wrecking my car and having the airbag explode in my face, childbirth #1, childbirth #2, Harrison's visit to the ER when he was 15 months old, Elizabeth's beads in the ear extraction)

The experience with Harrison was similar, in that they were trying to work on his head, he wouldn't hold still, he was screaming bloody murder, three of us were hovering and holding down, they tried lots of different things, it took forever, and I said lots of silent prayers. Different in that, he had a really high fever, so they were putting an IV in his head to give him antibiotics, we had no papoos (would have been really helpful), he wasn't old enough to verbalize any heartbreaking words, and the medical "professionals" were swearing under their breath. Oh, and that I had even worse skin than I do now.

Please tell me I won't have to go through an experience like this with every one of my children.

Actually, if this is the worst we have to deal with, bring it on.

Nothin' a little chocolate and Chick-Fil-A can't cure!

Call Me Crazy

So I really thought I was losing my mind today. Harrison was home sick from school AGAIN (apparently it's becoming a Monday tradition). At least there wasn't any more barfing. My kids have the uncanny ability to barf in their sleep. So when I went up to go to bed at 10 PM on Saturday and smelled that awful smell, I knew we were in trouble. An hour and a half later I had finished damage control and Nate finally got home from watching UFC at a co-worker's house. My husband has the uncanny ability to be gone when the kids barf in their sleep.

I digress. So we were stuck at home and I was going about my day in lazy-mode. Pajama bottoms, tee shirt, leftover hair and makeup from yesterday. Except I'm coming off of a lazy, snowed-in weekend. DVR caught up? Check. Blog caught up? Check. (Meaning, reading other people's. Not writing my own, of course. That's too labor intensive for a lazy day.) So we read books, and ate, read magazines, and ate, comforted Elizabeth after she electrocuted herself (really, she's fine), and ate, called my mom way too many times to count, and ate. Every few hours, I'd check my blog to see if anyone had updated and every time no one had. Seriously, no one? Not even CJane or Megan? They are the ones I can usually count on for a little hit when I need one. It really started to get to me. I thought, "Okay, I guess everyone else I know (and even people I don't know, but whose blogs I religiously read) has more of a life than I do. None of them are as addicted to their blogs as I am. They must be much more productive than I am. Why don't I use my time more wisely? Why don't I go clean something? I really think I need to check into a 12 step program."

Finally, once I got the kids to bed (extra early, because on a day like today, I just want to watch Dancing With the Stars, go to bed, and get on with the next day which will surely be more exciting.) I thought, "Fine, if no one is going to contribute to my blogging happiness, I guess I'll have to do it myself. Heaven knows, I have a lot of catching up to do. I'll go do a post, and hopefully remind a few people out there that they enjoy reading a post now and then and that maybe they ought to post, for crying out loud."

Then I remembered that my blog has been acting up. When I hit "New Post," it won't let me. So I have to hit the little pencil on an old post and then make a new post that way. That made me wonder if it was acting up in other ways. So I typed in my blog address instead of going through my blogger account and sure enough -- my girls had been there for me all along. My blogger was just holding out on me. I'm not the only one addicted to this stuff. (I'm sure that's what druggies and porn addicts tell themselves all the time). After catching up on the goings-on of all my friends and wannabe friends, I thought "That's better. Oh so much better." (To quote my sister Katy from a gas station bathroom stall after a much needed pit stop on our way to the beach. That's really how going a whole day without any new posts to read felt.)

So forget my other "problems" (laziness, procrastination, food addiction, blog addiction, parenthesis addiction (cuz seriously, I have that too)) just tell me how to fix my blogger.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

It started snowing yesterday morning and just barely stopped about an hour ago (it's 5:30 on Saturday). The crazy thing is that we had a really mild winter and had lots of 70 degree weather the first three months of the year, and now this. The other crazy thing is that it's supposed to be in the 70's again by Wednesday.

The mild winter made me question the necessity of owning one of these. . .

Yes, that is a Snuggie. Nate got it for me for Christmas after I pestered him incessantly. Once I saw the commercial, I kept noticing situations where it would come in handy, and wondered how I ever lived without it. So, yesterday I was very glad that I finally got some good use out of it!

After Nate took the kids sledding, and I caught up on all of my blogging and DVRing, we had some nice family bonding time in the living room. Complete with a fire in the fireplace, hot chocolate,

putting the puzzle together (again) (we're getting faster), listening to music, Daddy Daughter Dancing,

and a sing-along with Nate at the guitar. (I took a video, but it's way too long and I'm singing way too loud. Unless anyone knows how to edit the thing, I'll spare you from having to watch it!)

Today brought more sledding.

Yes, Mommy even joined in on the fun this time, because my friend Shauna was going with her family, so I caved to the positive peer pressure.

In typical Michelle fashion, I went down a few runs (just enough to be able to tell the kids that I went sledding with them -- this is my 3rd time going sledding this winter bytheway), took a few pictures, and then used the freezing cold, miserable little one pictured below as a good excuse to go sit in the car and read a book for the next hour and half while everyone else kept sledding.

The place is 5 minutes from our house, and I could have just left and then come back for Nate and Harrison, but I really hate driving in the snow.

It was worth the wait to go to 5 Guys Burgers and Fries (just opened right by our house) after.

It's been a fun weekend. I love the weather here. You never get bored with it and it keeps you on your toes! Plus, a good excuse to drop everything and hang out with the family all weekend is always appreciated.

Easter Time is a Time For Eggs. . .

"Easter time is a time for eggs, and a time for eggs is Easter time," is a favorite Harrison family quote that we got from our good friends the Tibbitts. Now that I think about it, it's a really silly thing to say, but we say it in a funny voice and it always makes us laugh. I guess that's what family jokes are all about.

Anyway, here are the kids' baskets. Growing up, we only got candy on Easter, so this whole putting little presents in the basket thing is new to me. Harrison's basket looks a lot more full, but his only came to $2.25 (thank you Target clearance section) and hers was $4.38, plus that's a whole bag of play food in hers. I was going to get them some other little trinket stuff, but I am getting quite sick of all the junk around here.

In his prayer last night Harrison said, "Freezebress (his version of "please bless", which he also uses in place of "we're thankful for") that I got all that stuff in my Easter Basket that I saw in that Wal-Mart bag." He seriously cracks me up. And it was a Target bag that he was snooping through, but that's okay.

He was really excited about his Bakugan puzzle (he's obsessed with Bakugans). He wasn't as enthusiastic about putting it together as I was. I realized I really love putting puzzles together. You get a little thrill every time a piece fits.

Here's the finished product. 90% done by me, 10% done by him. 100% fun.

Meanwhile, someone was discovering one of the joys of Easter. . .Cadbury Eggs. Although, I must say, I enjoy the Cadbury mini-eggs much more. Also, I had my first Cadbury Carmel Egg yeterday. So long, normal Cadbury Eggs, we're moving on to better things.

She really loved it though. She also ate her big Reese's egg AND Harrison's before we could stop her. Okay, so I did eat half of hers. . .maybe that's why she stole her brother's.

So here are the little darlings in their Easter Duds. The theme this year was green and blue, if you didn't notice. It started with Harrison's outfit that I got on clearance last year at Children's Place Outlet (practically the only place I shop for my kids' clothes). So then we needed have a dress for Elizabeth to match him. So I picked out the fabric on-line (which looked like it matched much better than it did in person) and my mom made her a dress. What a talented and PATIENT mom (sewing for me has proven to be quite difficult as I never know exactly what I want, but am always sure of what I DON'T want.)

I was going to have my mom make me a skirt out of the same fabric, but it wasn't turning out as I envisioned it, so we stopped. I decided -- if you're going to be silly enough to match your daughter, you better be really confident about it. Maybe we'll try again another year. I was much happier with this green dress found at the last minute.

We got Nate a new tie, so he could be in on the theme.

Those were all taken before church. I wanted a few more after church, but once we got home at 4:00, this is what we had to work with.

After sweet Harrison tried his darnedest to cheer her up, we got a little smile.

But then it was his turn to be sad, because he wanted to do a silly face picture and we didn't.

In an effort to cheer him up, we conceded, but alas, it was too late.

For posterity's sake I have to say that I had another outfit planned (not the skirt my mom was making, but Plan B) that was going to be $67, and it wasn't even that cute. Plan C, that I went with, was $33. That's half, people. Just call me Frugal Fanny.

In the midst of me trying to make an Easter Feast, and Nate coming down with Montezuma's Revenge, we did the egg hunt.

Obviously not nearly as much thought was put in to their egg hunting outfits as their church outfits. (Do I even need to say that they picked them out themselves?) Notice Elizabeth's socks in the above picture.

This little lady is so cute about picking things up and putting them back where they go. Hopefully her mother won't kill that natural instinct through a bad example.

So that was our day. Oh, and I spoke in sacrament meeting. I got called on Thursday night, because 2 other speakers had to cancel (dangerous to be friends with the executive secretary's wife). Thankfully, I had an Easter Talk from 4 years ago that I just tweaked a little. I figure, I will get out of speaking for at least another year, without having the stress of preparing a new talk. It went well, other than the fact that I was sweating profusely and pitting out worse than I ever have in my entire life. I really wasn't even that nervous to speak. Maybe it was because I was self-conscious that my dress was a little on the short side and I was wondering what in the world the bishopric were thinking as they stared at my backside.

On a serious note, I will say that my heart is filled to brimming with gratitude for our Savior and all He did and continues to do for us. I hope you all enjoyed celebrating that yesterday as much as I did.

P.S. Nate and Harrison are home sick today and I am telling myself that the little sore throat and headache I'm feeling are just because I didn't get enough sleep last night.

Too Much To Post About

Wow, I am so behind on posting! This happens to me every so often and it feels really overwhelming to think about catching up. I need to post about:
-Harrison's picture and explanation of the plan of salvation
-going to Utah for our niece Sydni's wedding
-getting our house painted
-having my parents and Katy visit
-Nate's 30th birthday
-Christmas
-our trip to UT last July (see what I mean, sometimes I just get too behind and never end up doing it)

Instead, I'll post some of the funny things my kids have been saying/doing.

Elizabeth is obsessed with seeing her poop in her diapers every time she gets changed. "See my poop," she demands until you show her and then she always says , "ew." One time I rolled the diaper up and threw it away without showing her and she followed me around crying for the next 15 minutes, "See my poooop, see my poooop." I just couldn't bring myself to dig the dirty diaper out of the trash, unwrap it, and show her. I finally calmed her down by assuring her I'd show her the next one.

She is talking so much and has her own way of pronouncing certain words. My favorite is when she says she's eating "fips in the chicken." (Chips in the kitchen). She loves wice with kikikaka (rice with furikake, this Japanese sprinkle stuff you put on rice). When she requested "ronisheez" (macaroni and cheese) for breakfast this morning, I couldn't resist making it for her. I've never been a big breakfast foods person, so am totally supportive of these kinds of morning meal choices. (As seen below).

She loves to earn woodypops (lollypops) for going shi-shi in the potty. She also proudly points out when she leaves her fiakah (diaper) on (instead of taking it off and getting her poop on everything like she had been doing a few weeks ago.)

The other day after picking her up from being watched at a friend's house I asked her if she had fun and she said she wanted Mommy and that she was "big sad" and "lots of sad."

Her famous line when we're putting her to bed at night is "sugga me fie minute?" (snuggle me five minutes). Once five minutes is up and we try to get up and leave she gives us a vice grip around the neck.

She is totally obsessed with giving everyone a hug and kiss when saying goodbye. I think it's pretty sweet and am somewhat of an enabler in this addiction. I have been known to knock on friends' doors after leaving their houses because Elizabeth needs a hug and kiss or make people get back out of their cars when they're trying to leave. I had to draw the line when she wanted hugs and kisses from Jose and all the other painters working on our living room. That just didn't seem like the kind of thing I wanted to encourage.

Lately, Harrison has been giving me some words of wisdom. When we got lost at the airport trying to pick up my parents he said, "It's okay Mom, just hold on a minute. We'll find it. Maybe it's up around that curve up there." And then "Don't worry Mom, Jesus knows where everything is."

The other day he also told me, "Mom, when you're talking on the phone with your friends, don't say 'stupid.' No one wants to hear words like that. You really need to work on that."

A while ago I had borrowed his BYU hat to wear that day so that I could go one more day without washing my hair (Have I mentioned how much I hate doing my hair? I avoid it at all costs). Anyway, he had borrowed it back while we were at home, but when it was time to leave again I said I needed it back. When he said no, I said, "I really need it so my ugly hair won't show." He said in a rather loud, authoritative, and annoyed voice, "No you don't. You still look beautiful. Go look in the mirror."

Usually his compliments come in a much sweeter voice. He randomly says things like, "Mom, isn't Sis adorable?" Or "I like your attitude." Or "I like your eyebrows."

One morning I was praying by my bed (a major hit-or-miss work-in-progress for me bytheway) and he said, "Are you saying your morning prayers?" So I paused and asked if he wanted to say it with me. Then he looked confused and said, "But when you say morning prayers, you don't say anything." Then I had to explain about saying prayers in your head. It was just so funny to me that he had observed that morning prayers consisted of just kneeling by the bed for a while and then you're done.

A few minutes after mentioning that we were going to go pick out a b-day present for daddy, Harrison said, "When I'm an adult, I'm still going to love toys." (Meaning, let's get dad a toy for his b-day so I can play with it.)

On our road trip we were playing "I'm thinking of an animal" where I describe an animal and he guesses what it is. I was describing a gorilla and he guessed monkey. I said, "It's bigger than a monkey." He said, "A fat monkey?"

One day he said, "Mom I like Dancing With the Stars better than American Idol." I asked why (silently praying it's not because of the skimpy costumes) and he said, "Because, I like stars." (In a duh kind of voice.)

So while I've been blogging, these little munchkins have been entertaining themselves with playdough (a much better choice than they usually make while I blog). When I saw that they had mushed all the colors together, I was bugged at first and then I realized, it's better for them to get an hour's worth of entertainment out of that playdough, then to have it sit neatly in it's separate jars and never get used.

Notice who tries to be just like her brother, not only copying his every move with the playdough, but also with the fashion statement of shirt only.

These kids are so darn cute, funny and easy to love (not as easy to take care of, but that's another post). I'm so glad I get to be their mom.