No Nap Pete Strikes Again!

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

No Nap Pete, as he is affectionately referred to when he decides he doesn't need a nap during the day, has struck again for the 3rd time this week... and it hasn't been a great week for that!

Sunday, John decided he was going to learn how to climb... so he climbed up on the hearth and touched the fireplace! YIKES! I was right there, but too slow. It was almost as if it was happening in slow motion too! I practically killed myself diving for him! He screamed for an hour and we couldn't figure out where he had been burned... his right hand was red, but not too bad, or so we thought.

He finally fell asleep and when he woke up he had a pea sized blister on his palm... so we went about our day, watched the Superbowl and hung out. The next morning we had hair appointments for the boys. Pete's 100th haircut (OK not really, but it seems that way) and John's 1st haircut. By this time the blister had grown to cover his palm and looked extremely painful. We decided after we were done with the haircuts that this was worse than we thought.

We decided to skip the clinic because they would just send us somewhere else. So, to avoid the extra copay we headed to UW Hospital ER because they have a Burn Unit there. The resident doc came in and didn't think it was a big deal but wanted to double check because John is so young. So then the head doc came in and looked at it and decided he was going to call a surgeon down to evaluate it.... WHAT! Well, she was nice, but seemed a bit new at all of this, so she did something very surprising... she called a burn unit nurse down. She admitted that they knew more than her and were more experienced! WOW, we were impressed! So the nurse decided to leave it be and if it popped we would have to clean it up... YIKES AGAIN! Luckily for this nervous mom, the blister started to leak just as we were being discharged. The nurse came back in and took care of it for us.

My poor little guy had to wear a dressing on his hand until this morning. They told us to change the dressing once a day... OK, no problem, with 2 of us it should have been a piece of cake! RIGHT! I think we forgot that he is a 1 year old... everything goes in his mouth... he pulled his bandage apart constantly. I was so exhausted just trying to keep him busy all week and keep his hand out of his mouth it was insane... and I just wanted to take a nap... however No Nap Pete struck again!

Well it is now Friday... John is no longer wearing a dressing and is using his hand more. It looks awful still, but the doc said it is healing nicely. This week has caught up with me and I needed a nap today. I also needed a shower, and maybe a break too! We were out of soda and therefore I have a massive headache probably due to a lack of caffeine and I am beginning to feel some numbness and tingling creeping into my arms and legs.... perfect way to start the weekend! Pete is wild and a bit slap happy due to the lack of nap, AGAIN. John is crabby as it is bedtime, and Pete has had me running back and forth from the bathroom all day because he also decided that this was the week to amp up the potty training and start pooping on the potty! He has started to inform me every couple of hours that he has a big poop starting to come out so we have to drop everything and run to the potty! I am extremely proud of him... but secretly wish he would have waited until next week (I guess it is not a secret anymore). Well that is motherhood I guess. Nothing happens in our own time... it wouldn't be an adventure otherwise.

I hope you all have a great weekend and a Happy Valentine's Day too! Don't forget to tell someone you love them... especially your kids if you have them, they make the best Valentines!

Protecting my Boys on this Adventure

Well, Birthday week has come to an end... we are still planning a very small party with a couple of the boys friends, but we are on day 9 of not feeling well in our house so it has been postponed for now. Both boys got sick on Pete and Greg's birthday and were sick through John's birthday and beyond. They are both finally on the mend after having ear infections, Pete with Strep and John with RSV. Try giving a 1 year old an inhaler... ha! And the "pink" medicine that they put flavor in to make it taste good... definitely does not taste good and just stains their clothes as they wriggle and squirm to get away from the medicine dropper you are forcing into their mouths! So needless to say it has been a long week and a half.

I really enjoyed seeing my boys have fun with the birthday festivities, but I am sure glad it is over. Perhaps we will think about timing of the year and what we have going on in a certain month when we plan the next baby ;) maybe we should shoot for April, June, October or November... those are fairly boring months for us, but then again it is nice to have some down time too.... I suppose this thought is for an entirely different post. :)

So now we are back in the swing of things and my mind has been able to focus on other things... I am done with presents and birthday cakes and cleaning up after all of it! I have been thinking about organizing, rearranging and redecorating... we have no money for that, but I have still been thinking about it. I have been thinking about life and where we might be in 5 years... probably with a couple more kids and a house busting at the seams (one can only hope) and then I start to think about money and how we will fit in a house the size of ours with that many kids and how we will pay for all of that as it is always a constant struggle now... but my husband reminds me that we have always been fine and that somehow God always provides for us.

Perhaps the main thought on my mind though has been thinking about how to protect my kids from "bad guys", as Pete would say, and trying to shield their eyes from things they don't need to see. And I am finding that even though I try very hard to keep them from seeing things I don't want them to see, they still see them. One example happened just yesterday... we were heading to Baraboo (I was taking the boys to Greg so I could go to the dentist) and we came upon two troopers and a Dells police officer with a vehicle pulled over. I noticed several pieces of the inside of the car on the roof (they had taken the inside panels of the doors out) and of course Pete noticed a "doggy"! "What is that doggy doing? Why is he walking around that car? Why is he barking and trying to get in that car?"

Yikes! What do I say? How do I explain that there are people out there who do bad things or dumb things... how do I explain what drugs are and that there are kinds of drugs that are not medicine... that the "drugs" mom and dad take are to make them feel better and that we get our medicine from our doctors... that is quite a load for a 3 year old, so I said, "oh that person must have lost something and doggies have really good noses and can smell things that we can't. So it is easier for them to find our lost things!" Yeah good one mom... now he will probably start asking our dog to find things for him!

I realize that I will never be able to keep them from seeing bad things, from getting sick, and getting hurt, but I have to at least try! That is, after all, my number one job! It is also quite an exhausting job too! So as this adventure continues and the world continues to be a bit of a scary place at times, I realize I definitely have my work cut out for me. I want to teach them how to be good, and caring, to be giving, thoughtful, gracious, humble, etc. There are so many things I want them to be... I guess I need to work on being better at those things as well and perhaps they will model my behavior as they grow up. It is easier to teach by example... gosh, being a role model sure is a tough job! Also, I definitely need to work on how I am going to answer the tough questions they come up with, but hopefully they don't come up very often. I would like to stick with the simple questions... and the ones that make me laugh and wonder where they came up with that... like last night when Pete asked me, "why do you have a mustache?"

After I got over being embarrassed, I said, "Mommies don't have mustaches... it is just light colored little hairs... everyone has little tiny hairs all over their bodies! If you think I have one then you must have a mustache too! And furthermore, the only people who can see Mommy's 'mustache' are those people who she kisses and gets really close to, which is you and John and Daddy." Good thing I don't go around kissing all sorts of people... at least I know these guys are stuck with me and my "mustache"! I am now looking for a way to get rid of my "mustache" though! Thanks Pete! Needless to say this adventure will never be boring and will definitely be full of laughs and lots of learning! I can't wait to see what they come up with next! Oh and please don't spread it around that I have a mustache! :)