Brian Regan Night!

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D and I had so much fun on our big date Friday night. We drove down to the palace theatre to see Brian Regan! He is our all-time favorite comic. One thing I really love about him is that he doesn't use all the same kinds of jokes that other comics do and he doesn't swear. I could take my children to see him (if they were 10 yrs older) and I wouldn't have to worry. I laughed so hard the entire time that my face hurt and I got tired. Our friends Travis and Rachel introduced us to him when we were in Idaho so we have good memories of hanging out with them, sipping our Cocoa Bean and listening to Brian Regan. Wish they could have been there with us!

Before the show we went and got something to eat and ended up at Spaghetti Warehouse. We almost missed it b/c, well, it looked like a warehouse and we were coming in from the back. They sat us right down and got our food out really fast which was good since we were running out of time. We ordered our favorite, calamari. This place was different though b/c their calamari was an entire squid that was fried. Ew. I wish I had my cameracord so I could post pics of that. It's supposedly in the mail.

The weird thing about the Palace Theatre is that they started late and let people come in no matter how late they were. Theydidn't even flash the lights to signal the show was starting in 5 min. I was kind of put of by that bc I wanted to watch the comic but kept getting distracted by entire rows ofpeople standing up to let two people in. So if you want to see a show and have a choice of where to go, pick the other place and not that one.

The ride home took a while since the roads were bad, but it was nice to be reminded how much fun dating D is. It's nice to goof off and be natural and not worry about assanine things. I really enjoy his company and am so grateful for him.

hallelujah a competent doctor!

Obviously I mean that Bruiser's appointment at the new Hemophilia Center went well. It was about a two hour drive compared to the one and a half at the other place. But figure in babysitter in the form of grandma and we saved time.

We left pretty early and took Monk with us since everyone was working. It took a while to get there but once we arrived we knew right where to go because this place is both professional and organized. They had sent us the paperwork ahead of time along with a couple introductory sheets that what floor, etc to go to.

Check in and registration took all of 2 minutes and they could see us with in five. We met the main nurse who was super sweet and so knowledgeable. A far cry from the flaky nurses up north. Anyway, she told us who we would meet that day and what their purposes were. So we met with the social worker who helps with insurance and government help as far as his health bills will go and explained that process to us. Then we talked to the nurse until the doctor came in. We were never in the room alone which was nice. The nurse had an entire work sheet to go through and gave us a big bag of Hemophilia information and stuff. She was really surprised we didn't get any of that stuff at the other place. What I liked about all the information she went over was that none of it was the stuff you find on google the first couple times you search. It was stuff we needed to know, like how to recognize a bleed, where to look, who to call, etc etc.

Then the Doctor came in and he was awesome! And you can see why-


He seemed genuinely happy to meet us and he spent some time talking to our little two month old trying to get a feel for him. What was cool was that the dr wanted to undress and dress him instead of having us do it and waiting, etc. Then after his physical exam, the dr. swaddled him and held him and tried to make him smile which was really sweet. I really felt like we were his only appointment that day and that he wanted to spend a lot of time with us. (I saw the registration paper so I knew that he had been pretty busy, so it was great.)

Really, I liked the way he talked to us and the way he treated us. For example, he told me that with Bruiser's Hemophilia, most likely, he won't have bleeds unless it's a result of some trauma. Then he defined trauma. They also gave Bruiser his immunizations where they iced his leg before hand and put his pacifier in a thick sugar water to help. We left feeling totally prepared. We were so pleased and the difference between this center and the other center are literally night and day. I didn't feel like I needed to roll my eyes once!

D and I also felt really fortunate. Dr. Kerlin is also an oncology doctor so the other children we saw were all there for chemotherapy and looked pretty sick. We felt so blessed that Hemophilia is all we have to worry about. While I wish that our little boy didn't have to have any struggles with it, I'm grateful that with all the horrible things out there, ours will basically just bruise easily and need an occasional (but crazy expensive) shot. The Lord has truly blessed us.

On another note: Monkey Monk is doing great with the potty training. So great, that we decided to buy pull-ups :)


PS I ordered my cord online so hopefully it will be here soon and I can post new pictures of my boys!

SPONSOR ME

I'm participating in a walk for March of Dimes on May 1. I'm really excited about it because I'll be doing it with my friend, Holly, and her family and friends. Holly authors caringforcarleigh.blogspot.com about her experience with her daughter that had anencephaly.

I've known Holly since I was 7 and LOVE her and her family so I'm excited to be able to do this. My personal goal is $100 and the team goal is $1000. So if my family and facebook friends donate $1-$5 I should be able to reach it easily.



Help me out guys!

2 boys at 2 years and 2 months!

I'm a couple days late for this, but our life has been kind of hectic lately. I'd also love to get some pictures up, but D bought me a new camera, which is AWESOME, but failed to get the cord and it's a micro USB. So hopefully I can get one this weekend and have pictures up soon. Because my babies are gorgeous.



Little Bruiser looks so much like Monkey did. It's been a wonderful month. He's still either very alert or passed out cold. He has his days where he's asleep all day long or very awake all day long. Either way, he still mostly sleeps through the night and is so laid back. What wonderful boys I have.

It's been fun watching Bruiser's eyes change colors. They've always been some shade of brown, but they've gone from bluish, to greenish, to Edward gold, to chocolate and mostly two of those at once with an inner circle and an outer circle. He's also kicking and moving his arms and legs a whole lot. His morning smiles are the most precious things. He's just a sweet sweet little man. He's also very content to sit on Daddy's lap and watch him play games.

Monkey just loves him and is very protective yelling "My Brother" everytime someone gets too close. Oooooh two year old monkeys. He's def been testing me lately. Hopefully I've been following through like I'm supposed to but GEEZ. We've been trying different styles of potty training. Yesterday I just let him run around naked and put his potty chair in the living room.He refuses to sit on the chair. Flat out won't do it. But he'll stand. I thought it was usually the other way around with boys, but he'll stand over the potty and pee in it (kinda, got to work on that aim). He's funny because he gets excited while he's peeing and keeps stopping himself midstream. Unfortunately, he also tried to poop standing up. I was LITERALLY, NO EXAGGERATION, gone for 10 seconds, and he had pooped all over the floor. But at least he tried. There's a lot of clean up with this method...



The husband and I decided to treat ourselves with our upcoming tax return. After doing all of the boring responsible grown up crap with our money, we're going to go see Brian Regan:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUU9CqrtFiU

and WICKED!


I'm so excited for our dates! It's nice to be able to splurge a little and do something different and fun.

CRACKED

I finally found a way to get the baby poop stains out of my baby clothes! YAY! All you do is douse this on the stain:


Then sprinkle on a little of this:


Rub together lightly and wash. Voila! Nice and bright and CLEAN! This has worked on clothes that I rinsed right away and clothes that had already dried before I could get to them. AND it has worked on clothes that I had already washed but not dried. I haven't tried on ones that have already been through the dryer since I hang dry.

Anyway, hope this is easier than info you'll find on-line. Some of those "tips" literally involved a twelve step process. I don't have the time and money for that. It would just be easier to buy new clothes!

Saturday was awesome. D's mom wanted to have Monkey spend the night so we dropped him off with her so we could go shopping in Columbus and spend our Christmas money. He is always so perfect with her and I'm glad that he can get some individual attention. So she took him shopping and got him a couple of toys for her house, new shoes because she hates the ones I bought him and took him to a movie. Now I hate it when people take their kids that are that little to the movies because they can't ever handle it, but I told her it was her money and good luck.

Well, she gave him some fruit snacks (which are his favorite), and when the movie started he was a little startled because it was so loud and he goes, "OH! Big TV!" Then he didn't say a word for the rest of the entire time. He was perfect. I was so proud of my little man. Taking him to the movies will be a fun thing for us to do to give him some Monkey Time.

D and I had a good time shopping in Columbus. We had about $100 each leftover from Christmas. He laughs at me because I'm so cheap, but we ended up at Old Navy who was having a huge sale and I bought 3 skirts for a dollar each. But I loved them! What a lucky man he is that I can spend so little, get so much and be so excited!

Anyway, then we went to my parents' house and dropped off Baby Bruiser. So D and I went to see Avatar in 3D. It was pretty cool. The 3D part anyway. The storyline was pretty predictable and I checked the time 3x because it was waaay too long. After the movie we went to try the new Dominoe's pizza. Yup, their commercials totally sucked us in. But it was really good. Waaay better. It was so nice to have a day to just us and it was a perfect date. Thank goodness for parents who take care of our babies for us!

Monkey Monk at 2

My name is Monkey. I am two years old. The first thing I do when I wake up is ask for "bweakfast" and a movie. I know how to put in movies by myself. Scooby Doo has been my favorite lately and I like to randomly yell "Scooby DOOOO".

I help my mom around the house by putting away the silverware from the dishwasher and holding the dust pan. Mommy will give me clothes from the washer and I put them in the dryer. I am very good at cleaning up after myself.

I try really hard to remember not to wipe my nose on my sleeve. I also know how to cough into my elbow, but I usually forget until I'm done- so I put it up there anyway just in case.

I normally like to eat hot dogs or chicken nuggets. I will trade any of my favorite toys for a gummy snack.

I know all of my animals and sounds because Mommy and Daddy go over them with me when we read. I love to read and have a lot of books. My favorite toys are my animals. But I usually would rather watch a movie unless someone will play with me. My favorite is playing swords with Daddy and farm or jungle with Mommy. I also like to sing "Jingle Bells" and "Twinkle Star" songs. And then I dance. I'm a very good dancer.

I have a new "bruwda". I give him lots of hugs and kisses. Mommy says I give him too much love. I help mommy with my brother by giving him blankets and getting his bottle. I also like to put toys in his crib with him so he can play too. Brother doesn't know how to play so I will grab his hands and push him in his swings. I also share my food and put my animal crackers in his hands so he can eat too.

Right now Mommy is trying to potty train me. I like it because whenever I want out of my seat or am bored, I will yell, "Potty Twain". Then when Mommy takes me to the potty I tell her I'm "hungy" instead. That way people think she doesn't take me potty or feed me. I'm very funny.

I like mischief and have to be put into time-out sometimes. I am very good at saying "sowree". I often put myself in time-out. I'm usually a very good listener. I like to cuddle Mommy and hold her hands. I even sneak into her bed so I can hold hands in the middle of the night. Lately, I refer to myself in the third person.

My mommy and daddy are very proud of me and love me so much.

My Own Way

I had just written this whole long blog about my family history and family problems etc etc and decided I didn't like being so personal. So I'll try and say what I need to say a little simpler.

When something is hard, I don't cry. I usually get through what I'm going through by putting on a stoic expression and stepping back from the situation. Point in case, I received a call that my grandmother was dying this weekend. So I rushed over there and had the very unique experience of being there in her last moments. Everyone was sad and crying and that's ok, that's their way.

Death isn't a sad thing for me when a life has been lived. James M. Barrie quoted his character Peter Pan as saying, "To Die would be the greatest adventure." While I miss my grandmother and loved her, I don't see it as permanent and believe in more than just this life. I seem to struggle more with the rush of all the other people surrounding me's emotions. It's hard for me to contain so I did what usually do in these situations. Deep breaths, normal expression and gave myself space.

Some people had a problem with that. So I didn't cry. It doesn't mean I'm not sad or that I didn't love her. I also didn't attend the visitation. That was actually accidental due to some thins I couldn't control. I don't know anyone on that side of the family and there's drama so I needed space so I could focus more on my grandmother and not the family drama. I didn't appreciate people who chose to spread rumors and/or lie about why I act that way. Doing that took away from my grandmother. It was selfish of them. You may choose to dive into that family and that's ok. But to me, aside from my siblings, they aren't my family. And it hasn't been that way in 20 years. And I'm going to deal with my grandmother's death my way. Respectfully, quietly, invisibly if I could. Doing the best that I can. My siblings sat up front, took roses and stood in the line by the casket so they could talk to the people who went up to see her. I didn't do that because I know that my relationship is different to that side and I didn't want to pretend that all of a sudden it wasn't and take away from my siblings or try to bring any attention to myself.

The funeral started about 15 minutes earlier than it said it would in the newspaper (where I got my information so that tells you how close I am to that side.) So of course, when I thought I was a little bit early, I was in fact late. And embarrassed to be late. I missed the eulogy so I'll say a few things for myself about my grandmother.

I used to call her Rattail Grandma. She had a long rat tail when I was a kid. I thought she was so much fun because she liked to watch cartoons and wrestling. She had a passionate love for all things Elvis and every Christmas she was gifted with Elvis mugs, Elvis blankets, Elvis clocks with moving hips. She also had a quirky thing for pigs which resulted in some fun gifts too. My grandma's phone was always ringing from friends who just wanted to check in on her. Always. People she'd met years and years ago just wanted to call and see if she was ok. My grandma was a dog person and always had these funny ratty mutt dogs that would live beyond natural dog years before they would pass on and she'd get another funny ratty mutt dog. She looked forward to getting old because she hoped that she would get gray hair. She ended up with a couple silver streaks here and there but she never quite managed to go gray. Her apartment was filled with pictures of us, her grandkids and filled with her music. 8tracks and records and cassettes and CD's. She loved music. She had the most interesting color of blue eyes I've ever seen and to this day I still can't quite describe them and do them justice. She was a tomboy and her grandchildren clinged to her like she was their mother, the boys especially. I loved her.

Waste of Time

Today was our Education Class for C's Hemophilia. It was about an hour and a half away from where we live and we made arrangements for P to spend the night with Grandma so we wouldn't have to get up so early. Well, yesterday, the Hemophilia Center called so make sure we were still coming in around 11ish for the class and see the doctor about 1ish to 1:30ish. First, that really irritated me, because I made specific appointments for 10:30am and 12:30pm. I was still feeling less than impressed because of how we drove all the way up there last time for something we could have done closer to home. But D arranged to have our class at 11:30a and to see the doctor right after so there wouldn't be any time in between. That was fine. A little more sleep, a little less hurry.

So we get there right on time expecting some sort of "education". I was thinking maybe a video or something. We were there an hour. The first part was them giving me papers to sign for me to be treated if I need it, but I just rolled my eyes and gave it back to them because I don't have Hemophilia. Then they joustled more papers around making sure they had everything. Then C had a major, biggest of his whole little life blow-out. That took 20 minutes to take care of. Then another 10 minutes of "Oh my goodness he's so alert what an adorable little boy." Then I thought it would be our "education" part. Basically the nurse shoved some books at us and let us know that she was there for us if we needed anything and had a 5 minute explanation of Hemophilia and how it works. The doctor called and asked if she had to meet with us. The nurse said, "Well, yes, they really want to meet you." (Which we never said.) So then the Doctor said she could see us at 2. Well, it had started snowing and I wasn't waiting around another hour and a half to maybe see a doctor who didn't want to see us in the first place. So we left.

And I was SO irritated. When the Hemophilia Center called to make an appointment for the education class I was very specific and said that I didn't want to waste my time again and that if it was something I could do at home I would. They were so adamant about how important it was that we go there and it was so necessary. So of course I made the appointment (that they didn't keep right) and convinced my husband it wouldn't be another waste of our time (which it was) so he'd take off work and go with us.

I didn't learn anything that I hadn't already learned from my first google search. They could have mailed those books to me. Really, I'm just mad because I drove for 3 and a half hours today for nothing. NOTHING. Then they said the doctor will want to see C every 3 months just look him over. No way. Don't get me wrong, the people there are sweet, likeable, but the operation in and of itself was unprofessional and I don't like to drive so much for something unnecessary.

We have been less than impressed with the Hemophilia Center from the first time they called. They're really weird sometimes. Like the nurse asked if C had bled a lot when he got his shots in the hospital and I said "no". And she goes, "Oh, well that worries me even more" so I said, "But isn't that a good thing?" and she just responded with an, "well, yeah..." Anyway, we're going to check out the Hemophilia centers in Columbus because they're only an extra 20 minutes away. Has anyone dealt with them before? I want the best care for my baby. I want to be able to know how to take care of him. I'm going to have to learn how to give him shots and how to recognize a bleed, etc etc and so far, these people have just played with us. They didn't go over any of that, which I figured would be the "education". So if anyone knows of somewhere else in Ohio we can go to I'll be much relieved. Ridiculous.

Already He's 1 month

So far we've survived an entire month of having two babies. C, for the most part, is the easiest little guy. He's pretty quiet like I knew he would be, except at night when his gas seems to get the best of him. It's really sad. Being terrified of SIDS, I even have let him sleep a couple hours here and there on his stomach, it's that bad. I leave the fan on which I read decreases his SIDS risk by 70%. I don't know how much stock I put into all of that, but it does make me feel better. The terrible gas is probably because he eats a TON. He's gained 2lbs since birth and his doctor was pretty surprised. P was pretty smallish, so maybe this one will be one of those chunky babies with the thigh and wrist rolls. I especially love wrist rolls.

Everyone said that having two would be so hard. It hasn't been. I'll let you know once the little one gets mobile. P is just as rambunctious as ever of course, but has taken to sleeping in our bed at night. Not that we really encourage it, but we're so exhausted that P sneaks in when we're dead asleep and we don't notice him until much later. It has made for a few funny surprises. We're going to have to figure out a system for hearing him as he gets up so we can direct him right back to his bed. Maybe a bell around the neck.

I'm really grateful for D. On our days off and at nights, he lets me slack off while he goes in full force with P. Right now he's giving P a bath while I play around on my computer. I really love hearing them laugh. I don't even feel guilty for letting him take over everything when he's here because I do all the getting up at night.

Right now, C can lift his head pretty easily and turn it to all different sides. He also moves his arms and legs a lot and when we swaddle him, we have to leave an arm out or he gets really upset. He really seems to love his womb freedom. He looks a lot different than when he was fresh too. His eyes are open wide and bright and he's gained a lot of cheek chub. His eyes haven't settled on color yet, but I'm sure they'll be brown. Just maybe not as dark chocolate as his brother. Milk chocolate? He's satisfied for hours at a time during the night, so I think I'm going to have to have him make the big move to his crib upstairs. It's my favorite room and it makes me sad that it's not being used except as clothing storage. Where, C seems to have outgrown all his NB clothes.

I'm a little sad that he's grown so fast, but I'm really looking forward to him being able to do stuff. This is totally different from P. I just loved every single stage he was in and never wanted him to go backwards or forwards. Maybe I'm just more looking forward to them doing brother stuff together. (Already they have some matching clothes.)

Thursday is our date at the Hemophilia Center. I'm looking forward to going that way because I want to get a couple of sweaters from stores they have there that we don't have here. I still have a few pounds to go until I'm back to my normal weight. Having a baby right before Christmas did not fit in well with my game plan and it feels weird to not be comfortable with how I look. I'm sure things will get to where they're going now that all the Christmas treats are out of my house. Mostly though, I'm thrilled to have my boys and I feel much happier now that C is here, and I was never sad before. Everything is exactly where it should be and there's not better feeling than that.