Today Is Not Your Day

So my sophomore year of high school I had an English teacher who had a sign on his podium that read:

I can only please one person per day.
Today is not your day.
Tomorrow doesn't look good either.

This isn't the best context for the quote or quote for the story, but the last two lines keep running through my mind after today's grocery trip. 

Grocery shopping. You know, when I was single, it was fun - yummy stuff I get for myself that I get to enjoy. Wander through the isles, consider prices, go through check out, done. And then I got married and I was working 2-3 jobs totaling about 3,000 hrs/wk and only getting paid for 40 of them and grocery shopping was a stressful, calculator bringing, try to fit in everything I wanted to get to show my husband I could cook and everything fresh I wanted to eat into a $25/week for two people grocery budget. Race through grocery isles after a long day in the classroom, adding and multiplying numbers and balancing cost vs. convenience and taste. Then I had kids. Husband's line of work makes more than a middle school English teacher so we get a little more leeway in the budget...$50 for three people instead of $25 for two (including diapers and formula!). However, we only have one car so grocery shopping becomes a whole new family outing because husband and I want to spend time together. I find that husband, with his years of experience in the grocery business in high school, is a valuable tool to have with me as well. Back to wandering through the isles of the grocery store, but with my trusty calculator and my posse of hubby and baby. Fast forward to another kid and a second family car and grocery shopping now resembles a circus act. You know how it looks. Forget that calculator. Take your eyes off that two year old for a second and you're paying for 5 smashed jars of pickles and every apple in the produce isle has a bite taken out of it.  You've been there or seen people who are there or you're laughing because it happened to you earlier this week. 

Well, as far as grocery shopping goes, the shopping part was super easy today. I had my list, I've familiarized myself with the locations of stuff well enough that I have the most efficient road mapped out through the departments. Kids are fed enough that they can refrain from eating everything I put in the cart until after we've paid. And it was fairly easy. They obeyed and were patient. And then we get to checkout. Super long lines today - it's Monday, so it's often much more busy than the middle of the week. I pick the shortest long line and settle in. Then I glance down and my one year old is covered in blood. What?! Now this is usually no biggy. Not sure where it came from...pretty sure it's his...normal occurrence when you have two boys under the age of 3 (or just two boys in general?). He's not crying...just smearing. His face. His hair. His arms and hands. Shirt. Cart. etc.. Here's the thing though...lately I've started going a little minimalist in the things I bring with me into the grocery store. Grocery list and pen. Debit card. License (just in case). Phone. Keys. All in pockets. No wallet. No diaper bag. Which, in this case equals nothing to clean said one year old of his blood (which I think originated from his mouth? fairly likely). Blessedly, kind granny on an oxygen tank in front of me overhears my exclamation of, "Taddo, you're covered in blood!" And donates her brand new pack of tissues to the cause. In the hussle and bussle of it all we arrive at the checkout stand and none of our stuff is on the conveyor belt yet. With the long line behind us, I employ Caden in the 'placing stuff on the conveyor belt' business and try to put Tadd back together to a point that people aren't grossed out and worried about all the blood born diseases (I know he's a baby, but still, people freak over blood these days. For good reason I guess.). In the midst of this Caden goes to put a jar of relish on the belt and the lid comes right off and the jar lands upside down in the corner of the cart. He'd thrown the jar out of the cart earlier in the trip and my deduction now is that although I was relieved at the time that the jar didn't break, the seal on the jar must have. Now we're covered in blood and relish. :) Cashier hands me a roll of paper towels, I fasten the jar and lid back together and send it on it's way down the conveyor belt and go about cleaning up our bloody, pickle-y mess, and the couple behind me pitch in to relieve my basket of its burdens. After bagging up all my groceries (we were at WINCO so do it yourself) we escaped, but just barely, and loaded ourselves up into our getaway car. No fits!No screaming! A successful grocery experience. 

Which brings me to my quote. I kept thinking, "Some people don't have to prepare all day to go to the grocery store. They decide to go, plan out what they need, go put it in their cart, pay for it, and go home. I used to be like that. I will be again too - someday. But "Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either."'

Even In Australia

So Caden's been on one lately and despite all my need to catch up, I figure I at least need to record his adventures as of late:
Last week I was getting ready to go visiting teaching for the first time in our new area...new companion I'd never met, new people I'd never met - kind of nervous just because you never know how it's going to go down. As I'm preparing the lesson and trying to get into some semblance of being ready for the day Caden had adventures of his own. First, he stuck wooden skewers in the media jacks of the computer and then broke them off so the skewer tips remained in the jacks. Then, while I'm using tweezers to try to pull those out, he found the Desitin and smeared it all over his face...to help his sunburn. I cleaned him up and while I was wiping it out of the carpet, he got into my foundation and painted his face and Tadd's feet so they could be 'beautiful like Mommy'. All by 10am. Then, upon returning home he decided to stick his Lightning McQueen up the tailpipe of our car so far none of us could reach it. (After many attempts and a call to my father for ideas, we were able to get him out with a coat hanger.)
Then today, he gets a hold of Michael's work cell. I tell him to go put it back and then I go off to start the washing machine. Little did I know that he put it in the basket I was about to dump in the washer... So this afternoon I find a phone at the bottom of the washer. Dang. While I'm fiddling with it to see if it's completely ruined or not, Caden gets a hold of our camera and breaks the lens. While I am now messing with the camera and the phone he comes down the stairs with Michael's brand new TI-89! Luckily that one escaped 'the wrath of the curious Caden'. It kind of reminded me of "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day".
'Mom said some days were like this...even in Australia.'

Dreams

So, if you know Michael you know his dream of flying. If you really know him you know he frequently actually dreams of flying. Since he's gotten older, married, had kids, (grew up...), his dreams of doing this aren't quite as likely to ever come true, but for his birthday I did give him a certificate from this website to go paragliding! (If you haven't been to that website, it has some AWESOME gift ideas.)
So a couple Saturdays ago we piled the kiddos in the car and headed out to the coast to watch another of Michael's dreams come true.

This is what Caden did the whole time...

Getting all suited up

Getting ready for takeoff

So normally in paragliding you take off from a mountain of some sort. This husband and wife team engineered a new kind of take off that pulls you along from a starting ground position and once you hit 3000ft you drop the tow cable and glide down like normal paragliding. Much safer because you don't run the risk of getting blown off a mountain, or getting slammed back into a mountain, or finding out your sail isn't working quite right once you've launched from the mountain, etc... It was pretty neat. Plus we got to watch the whole thing!

Taking off! It was pretty darn windy.

Up, Up, and AWAY!

My view of his ride - he's there, right in the middle by the cloud.

Gliding down - in the middle of feeling some serious G's as they took some crazy twists and turns

Safely back on the ground!

This is for all those California friends...they drive on the beaches here! Imagine having to watch your kids in the waves AND make sure they don't get hit by cars - it's crazy! BUT it was cool to drive on the beach, I must say.

Happy belated birthday present Michael. We had a great time watching you fly :)

A Year of Dating - May

So, needless to say, May was a busy month. We had company without a day's break (they each overlapped one day) from the last week in April until May 28th...then we had a week and a half off and then Michael's mother came for a week to help with the baby. We were in heaven having such familiar faces around us each day for a month...even if they got bored of sitting around a two bedroom apartment and going to playgrounds with a one year old. We can't thank all of them enough for their help! It was wonderful having so much help the last month of pregnancy too - holy cow did that make a difference in my energy level once the baby came. I wasn't completely worn down before he arrived. So, so nice! Totally gonna try to rig it up like that again next time (in the far, far future when there's a chance of being a next time... ;D). Michael's brother David came first to visit for a week and also be available to help with Caden if Tadd came early. Then my sister Alyssa came for a week and a half. Then my mom came for two weeks. Somewhere in there we had Michael's birthday, our anniversary, Mother's Day, had a baby (yay Tadd!), and my birthday.
With all of that hullabaloo, we didn't take the time to do our May date. It was planned as a small one anyway, because I knew it'd be a crazy time; but since we didn't get around to it, it just means we get to do two in one month! And August is that month!
Here's the card (I need to take a picture of each of the cards...some of them are plain and some are fancy and decorated. This one is simple, just like the date.):

So this past weekend we officially got a babysitter for our TWO kiddos (I get so nervous about leaving them both!) and headed out for 3 hours of uninterrupted date time - yahoo! We swung by the mall and picked out shirts for the boys - we have family pictures coming up when we head to California next week. Then we wandered through Barnes and Noble for a bit and strolled around the mall. After that we headed over to McMenamins - a simple pub and burger joint common around here. Their burgers are pretty good! Michael says he'll take McMenamins over Red Robin any day now. Stopped by the grocery store to pick up some dessert (dairy-free ice cream for me and the good stuff for Michael) and then were back to the kiddos in time for bed time. Sadly, turns out Tadd didn't want to take the bottle from the babysitter. I seriously hope he doesn't stop taking bottles - that'll be such a big bummer! Hoping it was just a fluke...
All-in-all it was a perfect first date experience to ease us back into post-baby #2 life!

A Year of Dating - July

July's date was the main date/gift of the year of dating - indoor skydiving! I knew we'd be traveling to Utah around the 4th to see Michael's family, so I figured we could slip away for a couple hours and head up to Odgen to the iFlyUtah indoor skydiving place they have there. We didn't have anyone to take pictures of us while we were in the tunnel, but here's a snap of us in all our gear beforehand!

And here's a video if you want to see what it looks like. 

It was so cool! You only get a couple of minutes, but honestly, that's all you need for your first time (plus, I found it hard to breathe, so I was glad I wasn't in there for longer at one time). They suited us up, gave us a little instruction, and then we flew! Michael went first, then I went - the instructor just let us figure it out for our first time around. Then Michael went again and the instructor hooked his arms around his leg and arm in like a skydiver formation and sent them spinning together as they turned up the fan and went flying up to the higher parts of the tunnel and all around. Honestly, I've never seen Michael look like he was having more fun!! SO WORTH IT! Then it was my turn to get to do some tricks - it was a blast! The force while spinning was so strong and I'm sure I spit all over the place, but some of the stuff you can do is crazy. After we were done, the instructor did a little showing off to show us what you can do once you have enough experience. Crazy! He would fly 30 ft in the air, flip backward and dive straight down until about a foot from the bottom where he'd spread out and the air would cause him to stop and hover. All kinds of flips and spins. It was definitely a a fun time with my Michael. So while I'm not going to be in a mood to let him jump out of an airplane anytime soon, indoor skydiving definitely fit the ticket of a fun time together. 

We picked up a little Cafe Rio on the way home to satisfy our craving since there's been a dearth of it in our lives since we moved to Oregon and headed on home to our kiddos. Good memory!

Readers Digest

Things Caden has ingested this week (that I caught, who know what I didn't) that were not meant to be eaten:

Shampoo

Conditioner

Bar of soap

Sunscreen stick

Bubbles

Lotion

Desitin

Lanolin

Watered down Johnson and Johnsons 

baby shampoo

Most kids would think it's disgusting and then not eat more. Not this kid. He still fixates on anything he can get in his mouth. 

The only thing he said, "Yuck." to was the watered down baby shampoo (as bubbles came out of his mouth)...and then he proceed to try to drink more. 

When does this phase end? Pretty sure he's been in it since the day he was born. 

On a side note - things I've found Caden feeding to Tadd:

Toothpaste

Honey

Cheerios

Grapes

Peas

Fishy Crackers

Baby shampoo

Pretzels

Raisins

He's such a good sharer. 

He also refuses to let Tadd suck on his hands (because we don't let him do it). 

Poor Tadd. 

The Fun Has Arrived...

So Mr. Tadd is 2 months old now, and it seems that I have stuff under control enough that I can take a moment to write down his birth story...even if it is for my own sake. Tadd was due on May 12th (Mother's Day!), but decided, just like his older brother, that he wanted to be late. My money was on May 14th - but both the 12th and 14th came with no sign of him coming into this world any time soon.
Funny thing is, with both pregnancies I started progressing early. I had contractions starting at 34 wks with Caden and about 32wks with Tadd. They'd always go away in about an hour and a half - but the doctor checked me at 34wks both times and both times I was 1cm. Then the contractions would pick up - about 35wks I'd get the "flu" feeling along with them, and I'd go into the doctor at 36 wks. With Caden I was 85% and 3cm and with Tadd I was about 80% and 4cm. The doctor would say, "Well, I'll probably see you again sometime later this week - if not tonight!" and I'd head home slightly worried about having a baby before 37wks (esp. since they were both boys and the lungs typically take longer to develop on boys). Then the contractions would stop within 24hrs, the flu feeling would clear right up, and I'd sail through (er...trudge, be dragged, suffer through...) another 5-6 WEEKS of pregnancy (Caden was 6, Tadd was 5).
So, May 17th came around - 5 days post due date and I started worrying that I wasn't going to have this baby before my mom had to head back home to San Diego. I decided to call my doctor and setup induction for Monday (May 20th) so that I'd at least get a week of mommy help postpartum. We got that all setup and then went about our day as usual. That night was a Young Women Fundraising dinner for Girls Camp, and since we hadn't had the baby yet, we hopped on over to the church about 6pm for yummy ribs and an auction. 7pm came and we decided we needed to call it an early night and get Caden home to bed. I went to pick him up from the nursery and just has I bent over to put his shoes on him, BAM! first contraction hits much stronger than anything I'd had up until then (and I hadn't had a single contraction for 5 weeks). I get him all gathered up and start walking to the car and another one comes. We load up, go to pick up the Red Box we had for the evening, and another one hits me so strong that all the painful memories of Caden's labor come flooding back and I know we're in for it! We get home about 7:45, get Caden fed (apparently he doesn't like ribs), bathed, and put down for bed (Ever try to do that between serious labor contractions? Let me tell you, it's quite fun.) and we get on the road to the hospital about 9pm (they'd been coming ever 2-3 min for almost 2 hrs).
Once at the hospital we get all settle in and they say they want to monitor me for a half hour to make sure I'm in labor before they admit me. While I love this hospital (I really, really do), that really ticked me off because 1) I was already at a 4 before the contractions started and I was afraid if they put off getting me my epidural too long it'd be too late and 2) it's RIDICULOUSLY obvious my contractions are real. Anyways, they monitor me for a half hour and ask me crazy questions  like "Did you bring a blow dryer with you?" that I can't physically answer because of the contractions. After a half hour she checks me and I'm at a 6. "You're staying!" she announces, like she's some sort of surprised. And I plead for the epidural. Again. (I'd done the whole 'try to do it natural' thing with Caden and made it to 10cm, but then they wanted to me labor down for a couple hours and I was done - and after I felt the relief of the epidural I swore the only way there would be siblings for that little kid was if there was an epidural involved). The nurse then tells me that I have to have my blood drawn and tested by the lab before they could order the epidural for me. WHAT?! I didn't have to do that last time. Why couldn't they have done that first thing...why did we have to wait an hour to even let the lab know to come up?! So...we wait.
Michael is great during all of this. Answering all the questions for me, helping me keep my shaking under control, acknowledging the especially big contractions on the monitor... :) And we get through the next couple of hours together as we wait for lab to come up and take my blood, test it for platelets, and then give the okay to the anesthesiologist. Through each contraction I just visualize my favorite moments with Caden - out in the grass at our nearby park, swinging him around while he giggles uncontrollably in the sunshine. I'm doing this so I can have more of those moments I tell myself.
 About midnight the anesthesiologist comes in to be my favorite person on earth. They raise the bed high up so he can put the needle in at his eye level, and just as I'm sitting up high on my throne, all in one moment my doctor walks in to say hi and I lose my rib dinner and ice cream dessert. He, not so discreetly, says he'll come back in a little bit. Well we finally get me all setup with the wonderful epidural (which always works fast on my right side, but takes about an hour and a half to work on my left - and even then I still get a spot that never numbs completely), and we settle in to wait out the next couple of hours (I was at a 8/9 by this point). The Reglen they gave me for the nausea knocks me out and I get a good nap from about 1:30-2:30. At 2:30 the nurse comes in to give me my second dose of antibiotics needed for Group B Strep. Before she hooks it up she checks me and says, "OH! There's his head! I said to tell me if you feel any pressure!!" (I had told them, but whatever.) And she pumps the antibiotics in me and calls the doctor in one fluid motion. Then the flurry of getting the room ready ensued and at 3am exactly the doctor broke my water, at 3:02 he said to start pushing, then the baby's heart rate started dropping and they scurried to get me on oxygen, but before they could get it going Tadd Kevan Root was born at 3:07am!
He was 8lbs 9oz and 21.25 inches. Instantly I could tell he was a calm baby and I was hit all over again with the, "Who on earth are you?! I'm your mom, but I don't know you at all!" feeling.

Here's the little man:

Then we enjoyed him the rest of the wee early hours together. 

The next morning, Michael left to go get Caden and my mom and Tadd and I were left to our lonesome to rest for a bit. Of course that's when we have to have our little scare. I still hadn't quite gotten my legs under me all the way from the epidural and Tadd was asleep in the bassinet at the foot of my bed. I wake up to him gagging and see him throw up several ounces of amniotic fluid. He then aspirates it back in and starts choking. I try not to freak out and just pick him up and hit him on the back. He proceed to continue to not breathe. I push the call button for the nurse and tell her in my best calm voice that my baby is choking and I need help. Tadd starts going from red to blue to this freaky gray color. I lose my cool and freak. Man do they make those rooms sound proof! No one could hear me yelling for help! I smack the call button again and clarify that I need help NOW. He's. NOT. BREATHING! Well that got them in there lickity-split. Got the whole dang nursery staff in there. They scoop him up and in one fluid motion asked permission to stick tubes down his throat while they're sticking tubes down his throat. (Of course I said yes.) 

So this happened with Caden too. Not so bad, but he did the gaggy thing, as we called it, for about the first week of life. The nurse asked if he was born fast (like I didn't have to push for very long). Apparently, the pushing time is when the majority of the amniotic fluid gets pushed out of their lungs. So if you don't push for very long (Caden was 15 min, Tadd was 5 min), it doesn't give them enough time to get all the fluid out and often those babies end up needing their lungs and stomachs suctioned a bit after they're born. Good to know. Anyways, they get him all cleared and breathing again, Michael comes back with Caden and my mom, and now we're a happy family of 4!

Welcome to the family little Tadd man - we love your sweet little self to pieces!