Still Reveling in Normal

Couldn't resist, I had to post another photo of them playing.

One thing I want to share with you, my friend posted about this time clock in her blog. In her post she calls it 'The Green Line of Moments', it's eery to see time zipping by.

Getting Back to Normal

Tonight the toys on the floor gave me a warm fuzzy. Evidence of healthy kids at play.

We've had two weeks of what my husband termed "hell". I don't know if I would go that far, but we've had some hellish moments. I think the top one was when I skillfully caught Bear's barf in my hands, M. and I were so relieved, then as we walked away to clean up, Boo threw up all over the floor. I actually forgot that it happened that way in my last post.

Bear continued to get sicker since my last post and ended up in the hospital on Friday the 29th with RSV. His blood oxygen levels were low, and he was dehydrated. Of course, they had to run many tests on the poor guy, multiple culture swabs up his nose (while I had to hold him wrapped up in a sheet.) Blood tests: the first time it was the finger prick, then they graduated to the needle in the arm. You haven't lived until you've had to lay on your screaming child and whisper soothing words in his ear while a man in a mask slaps a turniquet around his arm and pokes around for a vein. (Our local hospital isn't that child friendly.) As sick as Bear was, he had alot of fight in him. Luckily we were able to return home the next day, with oxygen & nebulizer treatments in tow.

Bear was better within days, and like clockwork, it was Boo's turn. She never had the breathing issues that Bear had, but she had coughing fits that would nearly always end in her throwing up.

It's so hard to convey the range of emotions that a parent can feel in a few easy-to-read blog paragraphs. Concern for your sick child, frustrated and tired getting up again in the night, guilty that you felt frustrated, pissed off that the sheets & the child you just changed are now covered in vomit, peace as you realize this is what you do. Yesterday, they both were crying and wanting to be held, but are getting so heavy now that all I could do was sit on the floor, hold them and give in to the tears myself. So much neediness-- it can be so rewarding, and sometimes so draining. But then you hold them, kiss their soft cheeks, smell their morning breath, talk to them, listen to them and whatever "hell" you've been through fades away. Isn't that what nostalgia is made of?

Where are those Mojitos when you REALLY need them?

A Mojito made with Coconut milk...way too delicious for it's own good.

A smore sundae, graham cracker ice cream, hot fudge and a flame torched, homemade marshmallow. I'm just lucky it wasn't my dessert, because I wouldn't have been so generous with the whole "would you like a bite?" thing.

I also had scallops with this incredible carrot mousse, (sounds a little weird, but it's not). Out of this world! I didn't even think of taking a picture until I finished. (It's on their website though if you care to see it)

I was doing pretty good there for awhile...right? I was posting every couple days, putting up photos and everything. But then life happened. Last weekend, I was eager to post about a wonderful dinner with friends in downtown Seattle at Boka, how fun it was to get out, and how expensive, when you add in the babysitter's cut.

and now onto life...

The week started with a well child doctor visit for Bear. Gone are the days when he cheerfully and curiously poked his way around the exam room, now he's wised up and wants "out!". He continously walks to the door, "out, out", and cries when he can't go. (and cries, and cries and then cries a little more) Books, games, toys, Teletubbies on the iphone, they're just distractions from what we all know is really around the corner...a big 'ol shot.

For the next couple days he's had a little fever, a cough and was definitely out of sorts. Moaning & crying throughout the night and even throwing up all over M. (who happened to be the lucky one holding him). I thought it was side effects from the vaccination until I started getting a cough too. And then Boo started coughing. And when there's alot of coughing, with our kids, things get exciting because they start gagging: two mornings in a row , we've had throwing up in stereo, and when it's curdled milk, it's not pretty. Sorry, I know that's probably too much information, but too bad, I've had to live it!

So that's where we are. Boo is asleep yet after another cough-upchuck spell and Bear is lying in my lap moaning and getting tired of my typing. Time to go.

Chambourde

Hi kitchen: it's a been a good run, but things are about to change.

Hi big, boring dining room window that I'm totally sick of. Yep, more change.

I'm going bold, I'm going red. Yikes! I kind of get scared whenever I say that, but I feel like it will work. I'm actually going "Deep Rose" but there's nothing rose about it. It's Tuscany, it's a brick oven, it's cinnamon...it's change.

For our living room hearth: think eggplant, genie bottle, Arabian nights, think...Chambourde. (It must be said in a drawn out whisper..."Chambooouuurrrde")

Don't know what Chambourde means? Neither do I, neither does Webster's, but apparently Benjamin Moore does. It's means a $50 a gallon room makeover. I've tried finding a similar color in Behr paint, Martha Stewart, and even Ralph Lauren, but nothing matches the tone and hue of Chambourde.

Here's a preview. Chambourde on the left, the competitor on the right--a no go.

(Pay no attention to the diapered stuffed monkey in the lower right hand corner, any self respecting home decor magazine would have edited that out, but at this blog, things are blessedly real.)

Weeknight Excursion

The Drive: 50 minutes of highway, satellite radio and my own thoughts....lots of them.

Destination: Mall town, USA!

Dinner: Mongolian Grill

Ambience: Food Court

Entertainment: Fellow Food Courtians

The Spoils: with 30 - 70% off, there's lots to be plundered.


Dessert: Gummy Bears (I kinda have a thing for them)



Goodnight.

The Haircut

The hair was getting way too long. After naps it was a bird's nest, combing it out was a nightmare for everyone. We all knew something had to be done. But when?

On the spur of the moment, we decided to 'get 'er done". Mom arrived armed with pretzels, fruit chews, Teletubbies on the Ipod...


but still he squirmed and swatted at the scissors, until I sat him on my lap and pulled out the the big guns ....milk in a sippy cup. Nectar of the gods, it works every time. (A nimble fingered, lightning quick hairdresser helps too.)


Now our little boy actually looks like a boy!

It's a little sad, I kinda miss that long hair.

My House on Milo

A last look, taken just a couple days ago.

Today the new owners moved into my old house. After spending the past week cleaning up after the last tenants and haggling over how much deposit money they'll get back, I feel a sense of relief. I spent ten years of my life at that house--purchasing it in '94 with my ex husband P. By the time I moved out I was divorced, had gotten a dog, changed careers and was engaged...again. The past five years it's been a rental and sadly, I've watched it get more run down every year.

I lived alot of life in that little house, all the time wishing for a bigger kitchen, or a bathtub or more closet space, but as I spent the last day over there cleaning, I missed it. I missed the way the wood floors creak, the way the light streams in through the back windows, I missed it's smell. I remembered nights by the woodstove writing in my journal, sitting in the sun smoking cigarettes on the back deck, planting scads of flower pots on the front deck. Even though it's been five years since I've lived there, it could have been yesterday,the house is so familiar to me.

I'm so excited to pass it on to the new owners...an industrious couple in their 30s: he is a carpenter and she is a Montessori school teacher who watches our children. The sweet irony of it is that I'm still not really leaving that house, our children will be there three days a week, but now I get to just stand back watch it's transformation.