Thursday, June 26, 2008

Shots!



Here I thought I was being quite efficient taking both children in for their Doctors appointments at the same time yesterday. Sarah needed a back to school physical and Aiden was due for his two month check up. Both visits required shots.
Sarah was very excited. You see, she wants (for the time being) to be a "baby doctor" and this would give her the prime opportunity to get an up close and personal view of the doctor in action with her baby brother.
She did VERY well with her exam. She sat still for the nurse to check her heart rate and blood pressure and was even friendly to Dr. Deumler as he checked her over. But the real test of true bravery for her were the shots! She needed two this time and received them both in her legs. She was outstanding - not even flinching or looking away. I, on the other hand, was about on the floor! No tears were shed and no complaining heard. Unbelievable.
Next was Aiden, who also did well at his exam, but the shots were heartbreaking. This is where Matthew comes in. I made him come with to hold Aiden down - I do not have it in me. Big sister, Sarah, who did not cry for her own shots, was in tears for her baby brother who received three agonizing shots in his legs.
All-in-all, we made it through the appointment unscathed. It was at home that it all turned into another story... Aiden slept soundly for the first two hours we were home. I thought we had clear sailing to head off to the pool with a sleeping baby and a bouncing four-year-old. I got Sarah and I into swim suits, towels gathered and pool bag packed. And then it hit.
Aiden woke with a startled shriek, which quickly turned into violent screams of pain. His little leg had swollen and become a lovely shade of crimson. Every time he moved it sent a jolt of pain through his small body. It was terrible. For two and a half hours he screamed uncontrollably, no matter what I did to try to console him. We tryed ice, warm baths, Tylenol - nothing worked. About 4:30 he finally slipped into an exhausted sleep. I could breathe.
In the meantime, Sarah, who was now sadly disappointed that we were not going to the pool, also began to feel sore in her injection sites. She began limping around the house and whimpering. I would pick her up when I could, but with Aiden screaming at the same time, it was hard to give her her due sympathy as well.
By 5:00 the Tylenol had kicked in for both children - just in time for Matthew to come home from work. I have to wonder if he thinks I make these things up. He came home to a perfectly happy daughter and a sleeping son. (Oh yea, and an exhausted wife.) He and Sarah headed out to the barn and Aiden and I took a bath.

Baby Sling


My friend, Lynn (flipfloppingmamma), has gotten me hooked on the baby sling trend. Let me tell you, I am loving it! Especially since Aiden is growing by leaps and bounds and is darn right heavy these days. My arms do still resemble Arnold Schwarzenegger's from carrying around the carseat, but when possible I am able to throw him in the sling and not have to lug that big ol' thing around.

It is amazing how much you can get done using one of these things. For the most part, Aiden is a "leave me alone" baby and does not require much holding, but when he is sleepy he does like to be cuddled and this lets me still get things accomplished during the day. My Sister-in-law, B, has also sent me a new sling - the Moby. This consists of an eight-foot piece of material which you intricately wrap around yourself and baby leaving the child strapped to your body - I have not figured this thing out yet. My goal is just not to let Aiden hit the floor while trying to tie him to me. I will keep practicing...

Soccer Mom




OK - so it is official, I have become a cliche. We did the mini-van thing, have the required two children and now, I am a "Soccer Mom". Does this mean I get to be grouped in the Soccer Mom vote for the 2008 election?... At least I am not in the NASCAR section ( sorry Dad).
Sarah started soccer on Monday of this week. Although I do not see a future campaign to the Women's Soccer Team, she does enjoy it. Matthew says she is just there to socialize... I have no idea where she would get that trait. But that was what her first two practices consisted of, talking and being the last one in with the ball. Oh well, we will see how the games go. She does look aweful cute in the outfits!

More Vacation Pictures, submitted by Tami






Vacation Pictures

Tami, Zoe, Sarah and I relaxing on the pontoon.
Sarah shows off at the river - I will add more pictures of this place when I get them back, it is pretty cool!
Back at the campfire.

What!? A Vacation!?






When you marry the farmer, you marry the farm. I am sure a lot of farm wives out there would agree with that statement. As it is with us. Leaving the farm is very difficult for my husband, even if it is only for a short getaway. So you can imagine my surprise when he came home from work on Tuesday and said we were going to be able to get away for a four day weekend over the Fourth of July holiday! Ok- some of you might say that two days notice is not much to work with, but when dealing with the farmer I have grown accustom to such surprise attacks! And let me tell you, if it means getting to go somewhere, I will be packed in twenty minutes!


And so it was, we were off! We traveled up to our dear friends, Jake, Abby's cabin on Shawno Lake. The three hour drive was a piece of cake, even with two kids. (For the record - the only one who had to stop to use the bathroom on the trip was Matthew!) Aiden was a peach and slept the whole way up and Sarah was deeply engrossed in the Spy Kids movie on the DVD player.


We stayed Thursday through Sunday and enjoyed everything from swimming to four wheeling. Also joining us on the trip were friends from Lena here, Tami and Todd with their two children, Zoe and Cole. It is quite sad when you have to drive 300 miles just to have time to see your good friends who live in the same town!! The kids had a blast. Actually, by Saturday I missed Sarah quite a bit! She was so busy with the other kids that I had hardly seen her all weekend! She was a very good babysitter for Jake and Abby's son, Jack too!


On Saturday night the crew all disappeared down to the lake to watch the neighbor set off quite an impressive fireworks display. For the first time since I can remember I did not go to watch the fireworks myself. Instead Aiden and I avoided being carried away by mosquitoes and hid in the cabin for some bonding time.


Abby's brother, Luke, and his two friends, Eric and Pat also joined us on Saturday. Sarah immediately fell in love with all three boys and followed them around relentlessly the rest of the weekend. Let me tell you, the next best thing to still being in your early twenties is listening to the stories these youngin's had to tell! Oh the shenanigans you can get into when you are young and haven't a care in the world.


Our trip home on Sunday did not go as smoothly as our trip up. We ran into heavy traffic and ended up driving for about 6 hours. Oh well, we made it and here I sit, with six loads of laundry, eight mosquito bites and a slight sunburn - what a GREAT weekend! More pictures will follow!

Night on the Town


Well, last night I babysat for a dear friend so that she would be able to spend a night on the town with her hubby to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. Needless to say, the mother of two, never even left town to celebrate! Being the responsible mother she is, they went for a lovely dinner at Applebees instead. (Although, I know for a fact that she would have much rather been dining at Olive Garden and hour away.) I should mention here though, the lucky woman is traveling to Alaska with her hubby in a few short days, sans children. I guess you can't get any better than that for an anniversary gift!
I would have to admit, I was a bit nervous about babysitting last night, only because my friend's son is one busy little guy and I was not sure how I was going to breastfeed a baby and keep an eye on him at the same time. Well it turns out, these were some really well behaved kids! Not only was I able to feed Aiden with ease, we went for a 1.25 mi. walk, enjoyed playing in the backyard, and had a rousing game of baby in the house! (Don't ask.) I am ready to adopt them.
OK- so this is not the fast paced, fun filled life I would expect to be writing about, but I felt I had to give these kids props.

The Sixteen Pound Baby


As some of you may know, not long ago we welcomed a new member to our family. Aiden Daniel was born on May 14 weighing in at a petite 8lbs. 6oz. I say "petite" only because he was out weighed by his sister who tipped the scales at a whopping 9lbs. 9oz. Now, if you are like my mother, you are thinking to yourself right now - "9lbs. - that is nothing, I PUSHED out a 10lb. 10oz.'er!" (The baby that caused my mother to never walk the same again, would be me.)

Anyway, Aiden is well on his way to making sure he out-weighs his 4 year old sister (now 35lbs.), before he hits his first birthday! During a visit with friends today I had the opportunity to put Aiden on an at home baby scale. My guess, now that he is 7 weeks old, was that Aiden would be around 13lbs. Of course, after lugging around this wonderfully chubby baby in a carseat for the past 7wks, my arms would say different. Sure enough, we have a 16lb'er on our hands.

Some of you may ask, does it worry you that he is gaining at such a rapid weight? Well, let me assure you all that he is a breastfed baby, and, statistically speaking, he is not destined to be an obese adult. And I feel, any amount of fat that is directly transferred from my body to his is just fine with me!! That said, the way I see it - the more chub, the more to love!

Hello, World!


OK- so it will quickly become obvious how new I am to this whole "blogging" world, but I am willing to give it a try anyway. I was introduced by a dear friend and told this is the new daily jounal.

I was also informed by a random stranger that I was probably not interesting enough to have such a site, let me know what you think.

So off I go, into the real world to gather information in my daily life that will hook all you unsuspecting people out there and make you Farmer Foley addicts. Wish me luck.