Pay It Forward: Winner!

I got on the computer this morning and suddenly remembered that I needed to choose a winner for the pay it forward contest. So I hopped on over to random.org and used the random number generator to generate a winner. And the winner is Laura!

I am so excited that Laura won, for many reasons. . . She is a blogger that I've gotten to know over the last couple of years. Her sister-in-law's sister is a friend of mine from college and I originally found her blog by clicking through the other two.

Back in March, when Michael was still in the NICU, a wrapped gift for our family showed up at his bedside in the hospital. It was from Laura! Now remember, this is a woman I've never actually met. Inside the huge box were perfect little gifts for Harper, thoughtful pampering items for me, and some wonderful newborn sized clothes for Michael. Can you imagine? A huge box of extremely thoughtful, perfect gifts from a stranger. Oh, but not a stranger, and any of you reading this probably understand how she was not really a stranger. Because she has been poking around in my life and I in hers, through these blogs of ours, and now I am so happy to feel as though I'm paying her back with something other than a thank you note (Which, incidentally took me FOREVER to write, back then, and she was super gracious about it.).

I get all sentimental thinking about it, how much I love this little online community, and thinking of all the support I draw from it - all the time, but especially this past spring when things were so, so difficult. All those comments and well-wishes were like little tiny life boats and flares, offered up to help us get through. Thank you.

_____



I bought Michael a new outfit from The Children's Place the other day, hoping for something that would work in the family photo we're taking next week. Yesterday I made him try it on, to make sure it would work. Harper saw him in the little button down shirt and said, "Michael is ready to go to work, all he needs are pants and a tie!" If the drool factory was hiring he might be able to earn a pretty nice wage.

Love to Go Around

The observant among you may have noticed that the words beneath the blog title have changed, here's why:

A couple of weeks ago my brother Jamie and his girlfriend Molly came over to have dinner with us and join in our family night movie watching. A couple of evenings later, as we sat at dinner, Harper told us that she loved Molly, that Molly was her new best friend.

"What about me?" Matt asked.

"I love you too," said Harper.

"What about me?" I asked.

"I love you too," said Harper. She thought for a moment and then added, "You're warm and cozy, like a blanket!"

Then she leaned over and hugged me, leaving dinner-prints all over my shirt.

Peepers

This morning I took Michael to his six month follow-up appointment with the pediatric eye doc. Preemies are susceptible to all sorts of eye problems and most are watched closely for a period of time after birth. I am happy to report that Michael got a clean bill of eye health today. As we were finishing up the doctor commented that he was the most cooperative baby they'd seen today. And he really was wonderful, didn't fuss at all, even when they put the dilating drops in his eyes. In my heart I know that Michael's level of cooperation was mostly due to fortunate timing and really didn't reflect at all on my abilities as a mother, but it still made me feel proud.

The first time we went to the eye doctor Michael was mere weeks old. Maybe five weeks? And I had no idea what to expect. We had not reached his actual due date yet, most of the time, if he wasn't eating, he was asleep. When they called us back to put the drops in his eyes, and then told me we could go back out and wait for another half hour, I almost lost it. I was not expecting the appointment to be so long, hadn't brought a bottle, nor had I brought anything to do. Half an hour seems a long time to sit in a waiting room without a book or a Sudoku puzzle, especially since Michael was asleep. You see I have never had an eye exam, at least not that I can remember, and I had no idea about the dilating and the waiting.

There is a fish tank in the waiting room and, as Michael slept, I pass half an hour assigning personality traits and back-stories to each of the fish (there are about 1/2 a dozen). It was oddly fun to visit them again today and remember the things I had decided about them. Could I be a bigger dork? This time the waiting wasn't so bad, I knew enough to bring some things (which I didn't end up needing, of course), and Michael could enjoy the fish with me. I would have told him all of their life stories, but we weren't the only people in the waiting room.


Now it will be another year before we go in to get his eyes rechecked. I don't think about it quite as often as I did when he was first home with us, but getting past this eye appointment was another in a long series of little items checked off the list of potential problems. We are so fortunate. I still feel like I'm holding my breath sometimes, waiting for the other shoe to drop, for some hidden complication or difficulty to arise. And then -check- another worry eliminated. And don't think for a moment that I'm not grateful for every single one.

Using My Voice

Okay, first of all, I have to respond to the comment Carrie left yesterday, about having my act together. . . the part I left out of the story, because I hadn't realized my mistake yet, was that I totally forgot that I was supposed to take Rebound to the groomer yesterday. I was so preoccupied with worrying about how voting would go and then so relieved it was fine, that the note on the calendar on the refrigerator (which I look at approximately 1,000,000,000 times a day) about taking Rebound completely failed to register. OOPS! Of course they are closed on Wednesdays, so I've had an entire day to stew about how I hate it when I mess up like this (rare, but it happens)* and worry about what will happen when I call tomorrow to beg for forgiveness and another appointment. Sigh.

Yesterday I used my voice when I exercised my right to vote. Today I was able to express my opinions again, but in a completely different manner.

Last week I got a phone call from an audience studies group asking a couple of questions about my television viewing habits and then inquiring whether I'd be willing to view a DVD and answer some follow-up questions. I've participated in product surveys before, but nothing quite like this.

My DVD and packet arrived on Monday. I was to fill out the paperwork and watch the DVD on Tuesday (Yes, I had to take a break from election coverage to do it, poor timing!), then answer questions over the phone today. There were two "prize packets" I was supposed to fill out, one before I watched the DVD and one afterward. In the packet there were groups of products - shampoos, soft drinks, laundry detergents, etc. - and I was supposed to indicate which brand I liked best. After filling out the first packet, I watched a horrible half hour sitcom, complete with an odd mix of very old and new commercials, answered five extremely general questions about the program, and then filled out the other prize packet, which was almost identical to the first. Gee, I wonder what they were really trying to find out?

Today I got a phone call and ended up spending nearly an hour answering highly repetative survey questions, which were 95% about the commercials I'd seen. The worst part of the survey was how the woman would ask me three or four questions in a row, about the same commercial, which were really the same question just worded slightly differently. I don't know how anyone can answer these questions without feeling like an idiot because I was saying the same exact thing over and over and over again.

How do companies actually learn anything from these surveys? Half the time none of the answer choices I was offered aligned well with what I thought, which left me prefacing every answer with , "I guess it would be. . . " How's that for convincing research?

For all I know, the survey had nothing to do with neither the television show, nor the commercials. I was probably participating in a study titled, "How Confused and Uncertain and Uncomfortable is it Possible To Make an Educated Person Feel Over the Phone?" They were probably using complicated audio equipment to measure stress levels in my voice. (Note to self: stop watching crime/investigative dramas on television).

This has been a rambling and rather pointless post - I wish I could to a better job of conveying to you just how bizarre the phone interview was. Oh well.

Have any of you ever done this sort of thing?

_____

*Please don't miss understand. . . I mess up all the time, but I usually manage to keep my appointments.

Election Day

My friend Tracy asked to hear what my voting experience was like. I had braced myself for a possible long wait at our polling place. I packed a couple of snacks, a water bottle, a stack of books, and a card game for Harper, along with all the wipes, diapers, and burp clothes that Michael might need. I stretched Michael's morning schedule to feed him as late as possible before heading to pick up Harper. The plan was to pick her up from school and go immediately to vote. I made Harper go to the bathroom when I picked her up from school. Matt waited close to 45 minutes to vote before heading to work this morning. I figured, if need be, we could manage up to a two hour wait. The gorgeous weather didn't hurt either. We could survive a line that snaked out the door. Our polling place is less than a mile from our house, if the parking lot was full I figured I'd just drive home, load up the stroller, and we'd walk there.

It was almost, almost, disappointing when we pulled into a nearly empty parking lot and I realized there wasn't going to be an epic wait before I'd be able to vote. Then I remembered I had two small children with me and sent up a quick prayer of thanks for our luck!

A woman approached me in the parking lot with some information about two of the ballot issues and several of the local candidates. She asked if I needed the information and my first response was, "Am I allowed to take it in there?" Really I should have just said no thank you, because I already knew how I was planning to vote. But all the coverage about possible election problems had made me really paranoid about doing something to jeapordize my vote. I don't know what the rules are, but I was kind of surprized that woman was allowed to be in the parking lot, handing out those materials.

Once we entered the building I saw that there was no wait whatsoever! I signed the book, got my card for the voting machine, and took the kids over to the next available touch screen. I had to wait all of about 37 seconds for one to become available. Michael was content in his stroller, but Harper wanted to be lifted up so she could see what I was doing. I propped her up on my left hip as I made my choices. I explained to Harper that I had to touch the boxes to show how I wanted to vote. Then I explained the computer was showing me the choices I'd made. Finally I pointed out the place where the paper representation of my vote was going into the machine. I said, "When the voting time is over people will count all the votes, including mine, and we'll find out who won."

Harper looked over with this huge grin on her face, hugged me, and said, "I hope you win Mommy."

There was literally a collective, "Awwww!" from the other people in the room. It was hilarious, and very sweet.

I got a little choked up as I voted today. No matter which side you're on, no matter who wins this election, something historic is about to happen. I know that we live in a country which is far from perfect, but less than 100 years ago I wouldn't have been allowed to vote. I am woman, who stays at home with her children because that is the choice we have made, not because there aren't other choices for me. I am a woman who walked into her polling place without feeling any kind of pressure or fear. I cast what I feel was an extremely important vote and I have every confidence that it will count. I used my vote to shape what will happen in my local community and in our country. I felt empowered.

We took some pictures outside afterward (Harper refused to open her eyes because the sun was so bright), because I want both of my children to know they went to the polls during the first presidential election of their lives. I want them to know that voting is important to their father and I. I want them to know that they will be expected to exercise their right to vote. By the time they are 18 I want them to be excited to cast their very own votes in local, state, and national elections. I hope they vote because they are proud to have the right to do so.

After casting my vote, Harper collected voting stickers for the three of us. They said, "I made a difference, so can you. Vote."

Long Walks on the Beach

You guys ask great questions! Although now I feel a little like we've been set up on a blind date and I'm trying to provide background information without talking too much or giving so much information that there will be nothing for us to talk about later. Go ahead and keep the questions coming, if you have more, it's not as though I won't be blogging after November. I think I'll stick to simple questions tonight, because I'm so incredibly keyed up about this election that I'm having trouble concentrating on anything.

I needn't have worried about the interview I did at my grad school today. It turned out to be a little bit of a let-down. In my nervousness I had actually prepared by reviewing my comprehensive project and looking over the program standards and assessments. I was imagining some kind of formal panel asking very direct and specific questions about my program. Instead it was one gentleman who was rather causally asking things like, "Would you recommend this program to someone?" This scenario is a good representation of most of my academic career - I never felt I had prepared or studied or worked enough and then I usually wound up being just fine.

Swistle asked what colors I like. . . My favorite color is purple, without a doubt, but I only choose purple for specific things. For example I like purple pens, markers, paper, stickers, etc. I have a purple clip board. I like purple clothes on Harper. I enjoy the occasional purple accessory (although, truth be told, I'm not much of an accessory person). But I rarely wear purple and I rarely decorate with purple. If I ever had my own home-office, a room that was really only for me, I might make some part of it purple. For home decorating colors I lean toward sagey greens and blues and beige tones. I always feel happy when I see other people have chosen purple for wearing or decorating. There is a cottage-looking purple home in a neighborhood not far from here and I love driving past it. I would probably choose a purple theme for this blog, if one existed, but I'm too lazy to change the colors one by one to make it purple.

And now for a couple of gentle reminders:

1) Don't forget to vote tomorrow!

2) There's still plenty of time to enter the new pay it forward contest!

Drumming

Here we are, the second day of National Blog Posting Month and I'm drumming my fingers on the desktop trying to decide what to write about. . .

This week is going to be crazy, by our standards anyway. There's only one evening that Matt will be home and bedtime is really a hassle if we can't go one-on-one with the kids.

Tomorrow I am going to be interviewed for a portion of the accreditation process at the grad school I attended. Suddenly I am exceedingly nervous about this because I loved my program and want to represent it well. However, after spending the better part of four years conversing mainly with children all day, I often find myself floundering when asked to articulate anything more complicated than a Curious George synopsis.

We had Michael re-evaluated by a physical therapist and we are receiving weekly visits, at least temporarily. It is a good thing, jumping on a problem before it becomes too big a problem, but it has made me exceedingly stressed about the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of my house - especially since this nice lady comes and basically sits on our floor for an hour. (And yet, am I cleaning right now? Obviously not!)

On Friday I was on the parent side of a parent-teacher conference for the very first time. Harper is doing well in school and I didn't hear anything that surprised me, which made me feel good. I think she behaves in school pretty much the way I imagined she would. I felt oddly validated - like I really do know my own child well. Her strengths and weaknesses have played out predictably in the school setting and we came away with some good ideas for ways to help prop up her weaker areas - which mostly boil down to patience and fine motor skills. We also learned that Harper would prefer to play games/do things her own way - can't imagine where that comes from! I think there's a little bit of oldest child syndrome there.

When leaving the conference, I did find myself wondering if Harper's teacher likes her. Not every teacher likes every child - sometimes the chemistry just isn't there. Harper loves school and is learning and doing lots of fun things. I have no concerns about whether she is being treated well or anything like that. But I hope that her teachers are enjoying her, at least a little bit.



So there's a little random brain dumping for this fine evening. I'd better start keeping a list of ideas for posts or November is going to be one l-o-n-g month!

Anything you'd like to know about?

We Survived Halloween!

I'm so relieved that Halloween is over. I really don't like the holiday much to begin with and it is one of the worst holidays for peanut allergies. At one point Matt suggested we take a pass on the whole trick-or-treat thing and start a different family tradition for trick-or-treat night, unfortunately Harper is already old enough to desperately want to go trick-or-treating. . . And they don't celebrate Halloween at her school (thank goodness!) so trick-or-treat is the only time she gets to wear her costume.


Last year we had her trade her unsafe candy for candy from our safe stash. She only collected about 20 pieces anyway, so that worked out fine. This year we decided to develop a points system and let her trade candy for other stuff. Harper had so much fun going door-to-door this year. I'm glad we decided to let her participate - we can always adjust down the road if we find that we need to. After all was said and done she had some safe candy, primarily from Nana and Dziatku, and Auntie M, a Tinkerbell DVD, and a new Dora book. Not bad.


Do you see the ribbon-festooned headband? Those are guilt ribbons. Things have really gone downhill in the costume department since Harper's first Halloween, when I over-compensated for my dislike of the holiday by sewing her costume. The second year I was way over the "starting from scratch" and I just added some ears and a tail to a gray sweatsuit - instant cat! Last year I was pregnant, but no one knew it yet, and way too tired to be worried about Halloween costumes, so a hand-me-down ladybug worked just fine.

So this year, when I did what I said I'd never do (BUY a Halloween costume), I decided I had to add a personal touch at the last minute. So I tied some ribbons onto a headband, which had absolutely nothing to do with Ariel, to make it more costume-ish.


I'm not sure they had the intended effect, but both the headband and the mermaid costume are resting comfortably in Harper's dress-up bin, so all's well that end's well.


I did decide to attempt to blop, by the way. Though it may be a bad sign that I was thinking about getting ready for bed and almost forgot to post tonight!

*****
Don't forget to set your clocks back, and remember to enter the new pay it forward contest.

Please Hum the National Anthem While You Read

(If you've already voted you get a cookie, and a pat on the back, and you probably don't have to read this post. Good job!)

What are you doing Tuesday? I'm taking Harper to school, taking the dog to the groomer, picking Harper up from school, and VOTING! I plan to take both children with me to vote, but I'm willing to be flexible and will call for reinforcements if the lines prohibit voting with children in tow. My polling place is generally not terribly crowded, even for presidential elections, but who knows what this year will bring. Harper has tagged along for several local elections, but I want both my children to know that they accompanied me to vote during the first presidential election of their lives. (Harper made her entrance to the world 13 days after the last presidential election.)



What if you don't want to vote for either candidate for president? It's likely that there are still important local issues and races on your ballot. Educate yourself and then exercise your right to shape what happens in your community.



What if you don't know if you're registered to vote? What if you aren't sure where to go? Have other voting questions? Click here for help!

What if you are still trying to sort through all the ads and interviews and debates and robo-calls and extreme emails? FactCheck.org is a good place to being sorting it out - remember not to believe everything you read or hear!

Don't let anyone tell you that you can't vote. If there is a problem, ask to fill out a provisional ballot and if you are concerned that your vote won't be counted, contact your county board of elections.



Okay, you can stop humming now.

VOTE!

The Final Pay it Forward

Here are the photos of the goodies I received from Jenny many moons ago. Please note the inclusion of sparkly play dough for Harper. Good call! The second picture shows a fun group of magnets, which somehow failed to make the first picture.




I've been collecting goodies for my final pay it forward contest for over a month. . . I'm also going to amend the rules just a little bit (and hopefully stay within the spirit Swistle originally intended!). Normally the bloggy pay it forward contests have asked you to hold your own contest when you win, hence the title. . . The winner of this contest is welcome to pay it forward on her/his blog, but may also choose a general pay it forward activity. In other words, just do something nice for someone else if you win.

Um, of course I can't actually make you do anything, but the idea is to increase the good feelings floating around out there. And, let's face it, we're probably going to need it this week!

So you can enter by leaving a comment on this post by November 7, 2008, by midnight. If you aren't sure what to leave in the comments, let me know what your favorite Halloween treat would be if you couldn't have nuts/peanut butter. (Based on the candy dooled out in our neighborhood, most people really, really like the nut/peanut butter stuff. I challenge you to think outside the allergen!)

To Blop or Not to Blop?

November is rapidly approaching and with it comes the question: Do I want to write a blog post every day for 30 straight days?

It's not so much that I worry about having things to write about, but these two aren't always keen on giving me time to write. . .

Fall Festivities

Last week I was able to accompany Harper on a fall field trip to a local farm market. I was happy to go, but I also felt like I HAD to go because the woman there was so rude to me when I called to research the allergy safety of the trip. (That was one of the things that had me feeling so frustrated a couple of weeks ago.) How could a peanut allergy be dangerous at a farm market? This particular trip posed two difficulties. 1) The trip included cookies provided for the children. When I called I was told they were not safe for children with any kind of nut allergy. So no cookie for Harper, we'd bring our own treat from home, but all the other kids in her class would be eating the unsafe cookies. 2) There were animals at the farm market and it is not unheard of for peanut products to be used as filler in animal feed. (BTW peanut shells can also be present in things like top soil and fertilizer.) I hadn't been to this specific place before and called to ask questions about what the animals are fed. The woman I spoke with told me she couldn't possibly be expected to know. She did say the children weren't supposed to touch the animals, but she couldn't help it if they didn't follow the rules. Lovely.

ANYWAY. . . despite several potential pitfalls, the field trip ended up being perfectly safe and delightful for Harper. She especially loved riding the bus to and from the farm market. (I followed in my car.) It was her first bus ride.


Other than the bus, the hay ride was the big hit of the trip. Unfortunately for me I am allergic to the hay. It was a l-o-n-g ride and every time one of the kids moved (three-, four-, and five-year-olds on hayrides don't sit very still!) all this hay-dust was kicked into the air. The children were thrilled, and I would have been too, had I not been acutely aware of the passages connecting my throat, ears, and nose before the ride had ended. Today was the first day I felt even remotely normal - I don't see many hay rides in our family's future.

Was it worth it for this smile?


Of course!


We had been to a different pumpkin patch last week as a family, but a racoon or some other animal took Michael's gourd off our front porch. Harper decided her pumpkin from the field trip could be for Michael. She's a good big sister.


Matt and Harper enjoyed the annual gutting and carving of the pumpkins, while I happily stood aside to provide photographic support.


Michael, for his part, thinks he'll wait until next year to get revved up about Halloween.

Thank Yous and a Meme

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who left such supportive comments or emailed or called to check in after one of last week's posts. I know there are a lot of people out there who don't understand the whole blogging thing but I have found a powerful sense of community through this blog of mine and I am extraordinarily grateful for that. I still plan to write about some of the frustration I was feeling, but not tonight.

Astarte recently tagged me for a six things meme. . . I've done this a couple of times before and I'm too lazy right now to go back and look to see what I've written in the past. Hopefully most of these aren't repeats:

1. I hate to eat ice cream once it gets melty. I have developed a habit of eating ice cream really quickly because once it liquefies it grosses me out a bit.

2. Frosted Rice Krispies are my favorite cereal. Did you even know there was such a thing? They are very difficult to find. I have to go out of my way to get them around here, so I don't eat them very often - which probably isn't a bad thing.

3. When I was in fourth or fifth grade I slept over at a friend's house and we tried to get her dog to ride down the stairs in a sleeping bag. The dog was not thrilled.

4. One summer in high school I went bungee jumping with my dad on a family vacation in the Wisconsin Dells.

5. When I was a freshman in high school I was the "Freshman Princess" on the court for our winter formal. How I ended up on that court has always been something of a mystery to me. I wasn't ostracized or anything like that in high school, but I never considered myself one of the "popular kids." In fact there were many "popular kids" I probably avoided talking to because I assumed they were too cool to be interested in talking to me. Now I wonder how many of them thought I was just stuck-up. . . I'm glad high school is over.

6. I was a secondary education major for the first few semesters of college. My children's literature class helped me realize I really wanted to be an elementary education major. I think that switch was one of the better decisions I've ever made.

7. When we were young my sister and I took baton twirling lessons at our neighborhood park. We twirled our batons in a couple of parades. I was not a gifted baton twirler, but I can still do the handful of tricks I learned. Baton twirling tricks used to come in handy for impressing children I babysat. (One of these days I'll have to track down a baton and impress Harper.)

The children wish to remind you that October is Fire Safety Month. Make sure your smoke detectors are working!

Midwest Mom, now with more public service announcements.

Linky Love

A fellow blogger has given me an award! To be fair, I should mention that she gave it back in September and it has taken me this long to finally pass on the love. Thank you to Pam, from Life with our Lads, for the shout-out.

Now I get to give this award to seven other bloggers. Here are some that I've been enjoying for a while:

Moments of Sanity

MO Mommy

Swistle

Back to Me

Semi-desperate Housewife

The Muddled Sage

Learning to Love Life in a Tiny Town

The mission for the winners, should they choose to accept, is as follows:

1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who has awarded you
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Add links to those blogs on yours and
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Autumn Day

The first fall-ish feeling day in these parts and even I couldn't resist going on an outing. Fridays are not school days and are therefore a little flexible. After Michael's mid-morning bottle, I loaded the kids up for a quick trip to the arboretum. I was hoping there would be some pretty leaves already and that I might get a chance to take a few photos.

We parked the car and immediately stumbled upon this flower/pumpkin/bales of hay set up that all but had a sign on it saying, "Take your children's pictures here!"

One good thing about the age difference between Michael and Harper is that she is old enough to help hold him for photo shoots. Too bad I didn't get video, then you'd hear Harper saying, "Mom, you better get over here before I drop him!"


I am absolutely shocked that I got not one, but three pictures in which both of them are smiling. I have new hope for holiday photos.


Is it just me, or does Michael look enormous in these pictures? Harper's lap could barely contain him, he's becoming such a little chub!


The above picture was the last one I took of the two of them. As soon as I put the camera away I picked up Michael to put him in the stroller and he spit up all over my coat - so much that I had to take it off and put it in a plastic bag so it wouldn't get all over everything else. Fortunately I don't go anywhere without a few extra bags!


Michael was not at all phased by the spitting-up (possibly because it landed all over ME and not all over HIM) and proceeded to fall asleep in his stroller while Harper and I explored.


Harper spent a lot of time "climbing trees" but I think it looks more like she's practicing for senior pictures.



Little miss independent could hardly be bothered to walk next to the stroller. She enjoyed the adventure of taking different paths than I was on - which was fine with me as long as I could see her. I'm just glad she wasn't begging me for a ride!

At A Loss

Does anyone else find it the most difficult to write when you really have a lot to say? I don't put a lot of pressure on myself here, on this blog, because I feel like most of the people who read are genuinely interested in what our family is doing, or in looking at cute photos of the kids, and don't necessarily keep coming back expecting post after post of stellar writing. I'm sure it is painfully obvious that I often just hop onto the computer and jot down a few thoughts/stories about our days and then move along. I don't attempt to make each post well-crafted or masterful writing. So when I have something to say that feels more important to me, when I feel like it matters which words I choose and how I use them, I often find myself stuck.

In the last two days a couple of incidents have really worked up my inner turmoil about handling Harper's peanut allergy. It is something I want to write about, but it feels so big to me right now, I don't even know where to begin.



So I'm not going to write about that tonight. Instead I offer this anecdote from our Sunday morning breakfast:

Nearly every Sunday we go with Matt's parents to the same place for breakfast. This past Sunday we were sitting in our booth, chatting and devouring a feast of breakfast goodies, when Harper looked over and noticed a gentleman with a bandanna covering his head and tattoos up and down his arms. She leaned over to Ann and said, "Nana, I think there's a pirate here!"*


*Or something along those lines, I was too busy laughing/crying to cement her exact words in my memory.

What Will I Do With These Kids?

Earlier this afternoon we noticed that Michael had developed a nasty looking rash on/under his chin. Because of our history with Harper any skin disturbance immediately has me thinking allergies with a sick feeling in my stomach. He has always been a bit of a spitty baby and he's also been super droolish lately. Perhaps his skin is just irritated from all that moisture? We can only hope. The dog did get away with licking at his chin earlier today (usually we manage to keep the dog away from Michael's head!), but I'm not convinced it was the dog. If Michael was allergic to the dog, then wouldn't it also bother him when his hands and feet were licked?



He's not feverish, or extra fussy, or touching his chin, or having trouble sleeping, so I am trying not to worry too much. Our current strategy for the mystery chin rash is to keep an eye on it and maybe call the nurse tomorrow afternoon, especially if there's not appreciative improvement or if things look worse. In the mean time, if any of you recognize that rash as something we should be more immediately concerned with - don't be afraid to speak up!

Then there's Harper. . .

She had a lovely day including a trip to the park with Matt and many hours of dress up. At one point I noticed that the combination of her pink high heels and her rapidly-growing-too-small summer shorts had her looking a little, well, skanky. She, of course, thought the shoes made her look rather glamorous and clomped around in them most of the afternoon.




One of her Christmas or birthdy presents this year is going to be a pair of sparkly dress up flats! Seriously. She has already learned the dangers of the poorly constructed high heeled shoe and I am half holding my breath, waiting for her to break herself each time she wears those plastic things. I guess she's learning early that style and comfort don't always go hand in hand.


Harper was angry about this last picture because it didn't show off her shoes!

Genetics?

Alright, I'm still not totally convinced that my children look that much alike but I do see some resemblance when I look at the following photos:





The top is Michael at an adjusted age close to five months, and the bottom is Harper at five months. I guess it isn't a stretch to see that they are brother and sister.

In the beginning it was difficult to compare the two, because Michael's start to life was so vastly different from Harper's. Now I feel like I'm starting to notice ways in which Michael is different. For example, Harper has always been something of a drama queen. When she got upset as a baby, calming her down was not easy. Michael seems to get upset quickly, but he seems more easy distracted than Harper was as a baby. When he was so sick the last couple of weeks it upset his sleep some, but with very few exceptions he was as happy-go-lucky as usual, even with an ear infection. I'm pretty sure if Harper had had an ear infection at that age, we'd still be hearing about it now!

In the last few weeks Michael has really started noticing and interacting with toys/objects more. One thing he does that completely cracks me up is getting a hold of something and then just waving his arm up and down so that the toy/blanket/object slams repeatedly into the ground, first near his waist, then above his head. It's impressive. He also does this with a toy that is attached to his crib rail. It's a little dog with a bone rattle hanging from one of its paws. He grabs the bone and then starts flailing his arm back and forth, making the entire dog slide and the plastic link holding it to his crib makes all kinds of noise. This is what he does as he's getting ready to fall asleep. I know that Harper never did anything quite like it, I don't think it's something I could have forgotten.

As the next few months pass, Michael will reach the age Harper was when I started this blog. I'll be interested to see how my experiences with him compare to the experiences I recorded of Harper at similar ages.

Six Plus One

Somehow I failed to give much of a six month update for Michael. Probably because I spent a few days mentally knocking my head against a wall, wondering how this baby of mine could possibly be half a year old. . . and now, in a heartbeat, another month has gone by. Sheesh!

His six month stats were:

Height: 24 1/2 inches - still not on the darn chart

Weight: 13.6 lbs. - also missing the chart, just barely

Head circumference: 42.5 cm. - 25%, apparently, like Harper, Michael has a huge head!

Michael at six months:



Michael today, at seven months old:



Michael showing his displeasure with the attempted photo session:



We went back to the doctor today to get his six month shots. The obstacles to getting them sooner included illness and massive power outages.

Michael after wearing himself out crying over his shots:


Does he look like a chubby baby to you yet? Because, let me tell you, the boy has been doing some serious growing this month. The two bottles a day that had been mandated by our pediatrician were really messing with my milk supply and pumping was not going well, so we are down to only nursing first thing in the morning and Michael is taking bottles of formula the rest of the day. The special formula we have to give him is higher in calories than regular infant formula and having it four or five times a day seems to be having the desired baby-bulking effect. He's like a baby Tom Hanks, eating Snickers and Doritos to pack it on for his latest movie role.

Winners!

Harper now rides in a booster seat.

Michael rolled over from his back to his front (finally!).*

I am suddenly feeling a little like pressing the pause button on all the growing that is going on over here. I officially file the petition to freeze time and enjoy my children at their current ages for a little bit longer.

*****

Hillary and Ryan (though I'm guessing the prize will really go to Hillary!) won the Dar CD and Wondertime subscription from the latest pay it forward contest. Congratulations! Hillary is a friend in "real life" and I've known her since we were camp counselors, working together to fend off hairy jumping spiders in the Wisconsin wilderness. Hilliary will soon be holding a bouncing baby boy in her arms!

Heather won the second Wondertime subscription. I have never met Heather, but we have some mutual bloggy friends and have become connected in this big, bloggy web. (Heather, I'll need your info for the subscription!) Heather is Mommy to two darling boys and I know she likes to read, so I'm sure she'll enjoy Wondertime as much as I do.

*Just this morning I was talking to Erin about how it felt like it was taking Michael forever to get to this skill, guess he showed me!

Survival

Well the short story is that I survived my week of subbing. I actually really enjoyed the teaching part of the week, but it was a difficult week for being away from family.

I think Harper has been a little thrown by the sudden change this week and has not necessarily been on her best behavior. Michael, who had been sick since BEFORE the power outage, just got worse and worse. He's been to the doctor twice this week, once with Matt and once with my mom, and has been diagnosed with both an ear infection and croup. Poor baby! You can imagine that he has had some trouble sleeping and has not been in the most stellar of moods. While I knew Michael was in excellent hands this week, I worried (am still worried) about the fact that he's had a cold for over three weeks and I worried that I was leaving my mom in a really impossible situation.

I tripped in the parking lot at school and twisted my knee, which is now swollen and a bit painful, especially on stairs or when getting out of the car. I feel like an old lady!

Our cable company couldn't reach an agreement with our local NBC station and is currently not providing an NBC station. Isn't that. . . weird? There was some sort of dispute over money (of course) and neither side was willing to back down.

When Monday rolls around I think I'll actually miss the third graders a little bit, but we're due to settle back into a routine in these parts, that's for sure.

Back in the summer I received a fun pay it forward package from Paige and I forgot to post this picture when I announced the newest contest, so here it is:

She sent a CD, journal, necklace, fun scrap booking-type items, a bear (which Harper quickly adopted!), and a little set of fun nail polishes and lip glosses. It was such a fun package to open!
And I am finally paying it forward, don't forget to enter!

Thank you to everyone who sent prayers/good wishes for my friend. She is on the other side of her procedure, feeling tired but the painfulness has significantly subsided. I know she'll be glad to get back to her class on Monday. I am just honored I was able to play a small part in the chain of what will hopefully be a cure for a very sick woman.