A Lovely Morning for Good Sleepers

We recently took a weekend trip to Leavenworth. It's a cute little German town a couple hours outside of Seattle. There are rivers and hiking as well as wine tasting, etc. Something for everyone. We rented a cabin near Fish Lake with the Forrester Clan and enjoy some beautiful weather. The kids bunked downstairs near an Aunt and Uncle, while the rest of us were settled in upstairs. The great thing about The Capt and The Kid is that they are great sleepers at home. All is quiet by 7-7:30 and they are usually good for 12 hours. Traveling, not so much! They have a hard time settling down and for some God awful reason they can't stay asleep past 6:30! This trip was no exception. What occured the first morning with Uncle Colin was just priceless! I padded downstairs the first morning to find they were up at their usual traveling hour. Uncle Colin listened to them in their room for at least an hour. He commented that they were so quiet and happily talking and giggling together that he figured we must be with them trying to let everyone sleep. Okay moms, if your kids were quietly in their rooms together, would you think this was a good thing? Yeah. So as soon as he said they sounded happy AND quiet, I knew it was not good. They were happy and quiet because The Captain woke up and brought a whole bucket of red vines into the bedroom for he and his brother to share for "having a good sleep." I would be happy and quiet too if I got to eat red vines all to myself for an hour! What can you do thought, right? That's awsome.

snapshots

There are some moments amongst the chaos that I would like to freeze in time. Here is one from this week.
At 7am the other morning I laid in bed and listened to the kids waking up. The Kid was calling "mama." At some point when I don't answer he will start yelling, "Heidi!" The Captain usually wakes up talking. What a suprise! When he hears the Kid he goes into his room...."Hi Buddy, did you have a good sleep?" The Kid: "yeah" The Captain: "Okay, stay right here and don't cry, Promise? Don't cry I'll be right back. Promise you won't cry?" I just laid in bed and listened to this. For some reason I just find it cute. What can I say, I'm their mom!

Barney

This one is for Anne. She liked this little story so much, she thought I should share.
So Th Capt gets TV time. A little in the mornings, a little in the afternoons (in lieu of a nap, ie mommy's sanity break.) and a show before bed if it's been a good day. He sometimes chooses not to watch and if it's a nice day we tend to go outside to play in the sandbox anyway. So. The other morning he's in watching Sprout and a while later he comes to me crying. And I mean the tears were streaming and he was just sobbing. I thought, "oh my god what happened?" So I ask, "what happened?" He tells me, "Mom, I love Barney! Boohoohoowaaah!" Wait. You love Barney. That is why you are crying like you will never see the light of day? You love Barney. I didn't say any of this out loud. Only in my head. Instead I say, "Aw, Barney's a good guy huh? He loves you too buddy." And really he is a good guy. Maybe a little weird but his show does send a good message. (yes, I've watched several. So, anyway, whenever the Capt. watches Barney he always, without fail, hugs and kisses the TV for the "I love you" song at the end. This kid really Loves Barney! So feeling bad and generous I take him to the toy store to find his very own loveable Barney for his very own. AND he sings the "I love you" song. For at least three days afterwards The Capt dragged Barney everywhere and at least twice a day told me, "thank you so much for getting me Barney, Mom." "Awww, you're welcome Bud." I say while chuckling in my head.

Kevin

So this is a conversation the Captain and I had a few days ago. It's still hard to explain without crying. Because I just laugh too damn much every time!

Capt: Mom, where's Kevin?
Me: I don't know. Who is Kevin?
Capt: No no, where is Kevin?
Me: I don't know. Where IS Kevin?
Capt: NO! Kevin mom. You know, Kevin!
Me: No. I don't know. You mean Kevin from Sprout? On the birthday show?
Capt: No, not the guy. Kevin. You know. Up in the clouds.
Me: (laughing so hard I'm pretty sure I might pee my pants.) Ooooh! You mean Heaven!
Capt: Yeah, Kevin, Heaven. Where is it?
Me: Um, yeah it's up in the sky waaay past the clouds.
Capt: Oh, okay.

We are not a religious family so we don't talk about Heaven or God or anything like that yet. We do have a book called Ten Little Fish and since the only thing that rhymes with Seven is Heaven, that is where the 7th fish goes. Hm, maybe the fish COULD go with Kevin from the birthday show. He seems pretty fun.

The Box

A box is never just a box at our house. Sometimes I think we like getting things just for the size of the box! WE've had spaceships, trains, caves, tents and other creative adventures with our boxes. Many time I just give the Capt and the Kid washable markers and let them go at it. In fact I think the Kid thinks boxes are strictly for coloring on. The latest box came from our Radio Flyer wagon. I liked the box because it meant I could put the wagon together by myself without having additional "help." Our boxes also last for days and sometimes weeks, just not necessarily in the same form. The newest box started out as a puppet theatre. I cut a hole near the top on one side for the puppets and a hole near the bottom for the puppet master. We all took turns in the box and in the audience. The next day the puppet show became an "old dog house" before getting crashed and smashed upon. By the next day the box was in several pieces that were perfect for the Kid to sit on and color all around himself.
In the afternoon it was cut up into even smaller pieces by the Captain who like to just cut with scissors. The smaller the pieces the better. Our boxes slowly and secretly end up in the recycling bin. If either kid were to see the box dumped into the container, well, they'd cry. We love our magical boxes.

World Hemophlia Day/ What Is Normal?

What is Normal?
I ask this because there are many times in a mom's life when you wonder if your kid is normal. They do things or don't do things and you quiz other moms and pediatricians to find out "Is this normal?" William is our second son and he has Hemophilia. This is a severe bleeding disorder that doesn't allow the blood to clot. Our first son Jack, is unaffected but also quite unique. Let's start with that one. When the time came for him to go head down in the womb, I felt him do a complete sommersault. While pregnant I always said that if he is as active out of the womb as in I was going to be in trouble! I am. He did everything ahead of schedule. I never worried if he was "normal" or on track in his development. In fact I couldn't keep up with reading those "baby's first year" books because he'd already done it by the time the month came around. He crawled and pulled to standing at 6 months and walked at 9. He talked at 12 months and was negotiating at 1820months. I always thought he was different than the other babies his age but never wondered if he was "abnormal." I was just trying to keep up! His personality matches his development. He is now 3. He never had stranger anxiety and is prett y much an ambassador for Friendly. He talks to anyone who will listen and will question, argue, or negotiate any chance he gets. People who meet Jack rarely forget him. You can't help liking him. (Unless your his mom and are tired.) He is challenging, spirited, precocious, and "active-alert." You get the picture. When I was pregnant with our second baby (cause we weren't busy enough with the first!) we really, in all honesty, wanted a girl but not for the usual reasons. Jack is such a big personality we thought being his little brother was just going to suck! Who could keep up with him? Always being "Jack's little brother." And we couldn't imagine having another one like him! So when the doctor told us it's another boy we were a little worried. Well, who knew we'd have two boys unique and normal in their own ways. It will be 1 year in May when we found out our little one, Will, (who was 5 months old at the time) had severe Hemophilia A, factor viii deficient. This means his blood can't clot. We found out when we discovered an abnormally large bruise on his chest. Blood tests and an overnight at Childrens hospita l confirmed it. It also means he looks like an abuse victim lots of time because, as we tell our 3 year old, "Will has hemophilia and bruises easily." Everyday toddler wear and tear leaves him with purple, bumpy legs. Will is now 15 months old and is cute as a button. His little personality is sweet, silly, and snuggly. He's very curious and ALL bo y. He loves to climb, explore, throw balls, run. You name it, he'll do it! So what is normal? In our house, normal means having an overactive, always thinking, non stop talking preschooler and a physical, athletic, risk taking hemophiliac in the house. Normal is what we make it. With Jack, normal means explaining why it's not okay to unscrew the hinges on the bedroom door. With Will normal is heading to childrens hospital to be infused with factor after getting a head bonk. This might not be normal for other families but it's just a usual everday at our house!
by Heidi whose mantra is: You will not be given more than you can handle!

The Garden

Over teh last couple of weeks The Capt and I have decided on and planned out a raised vegetable garden. He picked out the seeds: Lettuce, carrots, peas and catus. (this is known to everyone else as cucumber.) He calls it this because the picture on the seed packet is an illustration of cucumbers and not an actual picture. So to him it's a cactus because it's green, "prickly" and has little yellow flowers on it. If you tell him otherwise he will argue with him. So I just humor the child. We then took the gang to Home Depot and bought wood and garden soil. We now have a 4x4 rasied garden. 2 weeks ago we were able to plant the seeds. We also picked out marigolds to help keep pests away. In 2 other containers we planted tomato plants and chives. A few days ago we were finally able to see some little sprouts popping out of the dirt! Today I showed the Capt. how the tomato flowers are going to turn into tomatoes and that we can cut the chives with scissors and eat them. He really liked this and plucked several chives to nibble on. Tonight I made myself a big salad. The Capt wanted one too. I told him he could go out and cut some chives for it. Who knew this would be so exciting. My crazy little vegatrian sat and ate a SALAD with carrots and chives and dressing on it! Oh, and croutons of course. He also eats the whites of hard boiled eggs "but not the yolks because that's where the baby chicks hatch from." I pretty much left that one alone.

New Words

So a week or so ago we had a nice day. Woohoo! This led to a moment of spontaneity, something I love but rarely get to do anymore. Ha! I thought, "hey, let's go to the zoo!" I think The Kid had only been once and The Capt had been asking for awhile. We went over rules before heading in, part of our new strong willed routine. Once inside we decided to choose 5 animals we really wanted to see. This included a cow, the giraffes (of course) big cats and a couple of others that I can't remember. In the past the cows were a bit frightening. Definately not as quiet in the mooing department as the ones we've seen in books. At least the Capt. didn't cry when they mooed this time. He just covered his ears. The Kid looked startled at first and then scowled at them. I'm pretty sure he thought they were some sort of monster in disguise and NOT an actual cow. From there we took the usual Safari route and upon turning the corner, three soft faced giraffes were chewing away. The Capt quickly ran up to them and yelled, "Melman!" If you haven't seen "Madagscar" the movie, you wouldn't understand. I thought it was hilarious. Not sure the other people standing around had seen "Madagascar" but the outburst had perfect comedic timing. Oh yeah, The Capt wanted to see the gorillas but on the way there we decided to stop at the day and night exhibits. This is an indoor section of lizards and snakes and then noctural creatures. About 5 critters down as I was telling the boys what each snake or lizard was , The Capt peered in and then asked, "Is it venomous?" Uh, what? "Is it venomous?" He asked, in such a natural way as if he'd used this word many times before. How often in daily life would he ever hear me say "Is (something) venomous." I tried to act as natural as possible. "Um, why yes it is venomous." He continued the conversation with, "But not the babies." Somehow baby venomous snakes were a concern, but mama and dada venomous snakes were just the way it was. "Uh, yes the babies are too." "No, Mom." he tells me. "Not the babies."

family fun.

The Capt wants to be a rockstar.  No, really.  A rockstar.  Seriously.  For at least a year(if not longer) he has talked about being a rockstar.  And he was completely shocked to find out girls can be rockstars too!!  One day I found him coloring all over his arms.  I asked him what the heck he was doing?!  He said that all rockstars have colors on their arms.  I have no idea where he got this from.  Anyway, lately he has progressed to standing on the couch with a golf club (aka microphone) in his hand while we sit on the floor and watch his "concert."  He creates his own songs of course.  Some are pretty funny.  These shennaigans have now moved on to music in the car.  He will ask for a rock and roll song and when we come to one that has some rockin' electric guitar and jammin' drums we turn it up really loud, open the sun roof, and jam away.  All of us with our air guitars, head banging, bad selves.  All of us except, The Kid.  He usually just looks at us like we are complete wackos.  Or idiots.  Like he can't believe he's even related to us.  Eventually he might start patting his hands on his knees but he certainly doesn't smile about it.  I'm pretty sure he'll have disowned us by the time he turns 16.  The second game is one we also play in the car.  "I Spy with My Little Eye."  The Capt loves this game even though he'll pick a color before he finds an object.  Well, the other day we were playing this game on the way to Kindermusik.  "I spy with my little eye...."  the other person guesses and usually before the right answer there are a couple of, "Nooooo's." In a kind of sing song way that ends with a high inflection.  Well after about 10 minutes, The Kid thought he would join in.  Perfect! " No" is one of his favorite words!  So The Capt and I just started by asking the Kid what he spied.  "A tree? A blue car? my pants?"  Every answer we got the same copy-cat "Noooooo."  Maybe you had to be there but we laughed the whole way!

Magic!

Okay okay, I know I have totally flaked on my blog lately.  I've been in a horrible creative funk, but I think my inspiration is coming back to me.  And trust me.  This post is gonna be good!

So a coupel of weeks ago the Capt and I had a few moments alone.  He was sitting on my lap and chatting.  (Like when is he NOT chatting!)  He started talking about how he and his brother were babies in my tummy.  I just nodded and hoped this wasn't going somewhere scary.  We'd already discussed that babies come out of a hole and I hoped this was still acceptable.  Well.  It got scary.  He still seemed to be okay about babies coming out of a hole but now he asked, "how did they get in there?"  I'm sure I had a deer in the headlights look and hoped I could play dumb.  "Oh they just get there." I replied.  "But HOW?"  Okay clearly not going the way I hoped.  I was trying to think fast so I stalled some more.  "oh they just get in the mom's tummy.  Mommy and daddy loved each other so much, blah blah blah that the baby just got there."  I'm sure it was not sounding as casual as I hope since he asked again.  "how?"  I came up with the only thing I could when dealing with a 3 year old asking where babies came from.  "It was Magic!"  I'm sure I was getting sweaty and looking for another escapre route, but he hardly blinked an eye and said, "oh, okay."  I was seriously not prepared for this conversation.  Dada thought I should have told him, "some sort of tube."  But that's his answer for everything.  MY answer for everything now is it's magic.

Taboo

So the Capt. watches TV.  There.  I said it.  He's 3 and he watches an average of 2 hours a day.  I don't feel guilty and I'm not ashamed.  He started watching the Sprout channel when he was about 2.  Since it was at this time that he stopped taking naps and I couldn't fight the battle any longer AND I was pregnant, I decided this was a simple way to have quiet time together.  He would lay on my bed for about 45 min. and I could take a nap.  I knew what he was watching and he was actually learning some stuff.  Most of it animal related since he could watch Zaboomafoo over and over again.  When The Kid came along TV became a helpful and safe way to keep him in one spot while I nursed or tended to the baby.  Although there were days that trouble still occured, 99% of th time he'd watch a show for 15 or 30 min. and be done.  These days we have a routine.  He watches about an hour or so in the morning while I get ready and get morning things done.  He doesn't even sit for a full hour but filters in and out of our bedroom to watch here and there.  Most days he's at school or we are busy and when we get home in the afternoons he needs some quiet time.  He will go lay on my bed and watch shows for about an hour.  We have now branched out to the Noggin channel.  Sometimes I watch with him.  Other times I don't.  At night before bed he gets to watch one show with Dada.  That's their little time together.  Sometimes Dada even finds an old school cartoon on youtube.  The Capt. doesn't watch movies very often.  We own maybe 2.  We rent maybe 1 or 2 a month.  Then we have family movie night with popcorn and The Capt stays up late.  (Oooh til 8!) So there.  It's out in the universe now.  

The Captain's name.

The Captain has learned how to spell his name.  He's known how to do this sincce before Christmas.  He's very funny about it though.  There are 2 other kids in his class with the same name so the folders have their names and the Last inital on them.  This now means that the Captain thinks his name has an F at the end.  He gets very upset if you spell it and don't say "F".  Every night he spells his name that hangs over his bed and asks how come there is no F.  Every night I explain that the F is for his last name and since we all have the same last name, we know who he is whithout it.  This, of course, is not a good enough answer and I'm sure no answer could be.  So every night he asks where the F is and will probably do so until we hang one up there.  This is so not going to happen.  I'm just glad he's not tall enough to put one there on his own.  Oh wait!  Sshh, I better not think that out loud.  He might have the house bugged!

Happy 1st!

The Kid turned 1 year old this month. I really still can't believe he is one already. And we made it through his first year of hemophilia. Hooray!! We celebrated with family in Suncadia. A fancy moutain home resort. Of course Thye Kid was super sick on this trip. Bad cold, ear infection. Overall lots of snot. For his brithday we sang The Birthday Song, had cupcakes and let the other kids open his presents. Thanks to Uncle Colin, we got pictures. I am lame and forgot my camera. It was a sweet little birthday for the sweetest little boy. And the best part of it all?  He took his very first steps!  On his birhtday!  So exciting! Now that he's one do we have to stop calling him Baby?

A long 24 hours

So to start our new year off The Kid got his first mouth bleed. He's pretty dang cute right now but he's got one big tooth on the bottom and is trying to toddle around. Yesterday as he was trying to stand, he fell over. (As most new toddlers do) And he somehow cut the roof of his mouth with that pumpkin tooth. (So called because he looks like a carved pumpkin face when he smiles.) We were getting ready to head out for the day so I thought I'd just watch it a bit before calling in extra forces. Well of course it just kept oozing. It wasn't gushing or anything, just a nice little vampire smile every time he opened his mouth or smiled.
So I called in "the team" and decided to start the Amicar. Amicar is an oral medication that helps mouth bleeds clot. Mouth bleeds clot differently because of all that saliva. Amicar also has to be given every 6 hours. So The Kid got his dose and we headed out to Costco. The lucky pumpkin head also got a treat of frozen yogurt to help the bleeding as well. In case you haven't tried, putting ice in a baby's mouth is pretty much impossible. Dada came up with this idea and it was perfect! It slowed the bleeding somewhat and we managed to get through Costco without freaking anyone out. Good thing we are not afraid of blood! The Kid even nibbled on a little pizza. By nap time (which was super late) the bleeding was minimal so the Kid had an afternoon snooze. If he woke up fine we'd give one more dose of meds. If he was still bleeding, we'd discuss Plan B. Well he woke up okay but about an hour or two before bed time the bleeding picked up again. More Amicar and more frozen yogurt. By bedtime it had slowed so it was nighty-night as usual. Unfortunately that little mouth started up again around 11pm. Too soon fro meds so just more frozen yogurt...hmmmm....sounds suspicious! I was a little nervous putting him to bed but it really wasn't more than blood tinged drool. Yech! I set the alarm for 1am and tried to sleep. Read: "tried!" Again another round of Amicar. The baby barely woke up! And looking into the crib expecting some bloody tragedy, I only found a nickel sized spot of blood. Whew! Back to bed. All in all The Kid was a trooper plumped up on frozen yogurt, which after the previoius night's BurgerMaster vanilla shake, is his all time FAVORITE thing to eat. Two more doses of meds for a full 24 hours and mostly eating soft foods, I think the Kid made it through without any knowledge that his mother is now expecting a full head of grey hair on her head!
Oh and I WAS going to blog about the trip to Burger Master from the previous night, but blood stories trump beef. I promise to post pictures though!