Sad

We lost Matt's cousin yesterday. He was young. It was a tragic accident. It's so sad. It's even harder to lose someone so young. I don't know what else to say. (Here's what Matt had to say...what little he could for now.)

Joe- you'll be missed! (This photo is from the family Christmas party, the last time we saw him unfortunately.) Please pray for the family this week. Thanks.

Evidence

My kid is strange.

Don't believe me? Here's a little evidence.

His favorite thing to do with his grandma, Matt's mom, (and anyone else who will pretend with him) is play "sleepover". She doesn't mind playing along, but he makes her sleep on the floor in his room.

Then there was the day I found his bear "playing" Wii.

And the morning I found his underwear on his doorknob. Not sure what this was about. (Also, I so need to repaint our doors.)

We went to the park with my mom, and he wanted her to be the "grumpy old troll". She had to ask him riddles, so he could cross. (Anyone else know what this is from? My sympathies if you do.)

And last night I went to get a cookie after Zachariah had gone to bed. This is what I found.*

What is wrong with my kid? Please tell me that your kids do strange things like this too!

*I was telling Matt about the cookie thing tonight. Zachariah overheard and said he was hungry one day when I was in the shower, so he got a cookie but he wasn't hungry enough to eat the whole thing. Ha! (It did totally crack me up when I found half a cookie put back in the container.)

Accountability

OK, who's keeping me accountable? Uh, no one? That's why I haven't blogged ALL WEEK! Well, I might be a little to blame too.

I put out this little challenge at the beginning on the month. The goal is to blog a certain amount of days that would be reasonable for you, but stretching you to make you blog just a little more than maybe you have lately. I chose 3 days a week.

A few other people have joined me in my quest. Andria and Kelsey have joined me in my adventure. And I must admit that I'm loving seeing more blog posts from both of them. I guess they still haven't spurred me on to blog more.

I won't give up, though. I'm going to keep on keeping on.

You want to see a few of my excuses? Of course you do!

Zachariah playing "sleepover" with Grandma.

PATRICK! My adorable nephew!

Cuddling with my new nephew and Zachariah's new cousin. He is in love with baby Patrick, so sweet and gentle with him.

Baby Patrick (my new nephew for those of you not following along) is home now with his mommy and daddy. He had to stay in the special care nursery for a week, but he left last Monday evening. He's doing fantastic! He's growing quickly and has gained almost a pound already. He really is a sweet cuddly baby...the best kind!

I love being an auntie! It's so much fun to have this little baby to cuddle and hold. It's just great. Now I'm patiently waiting for the next nephew to arrive (my sister's) in approximately 21 days.

Since Patrick spent a few extra days in the hospital and they had him in the hospital here in our town, it was easy to pop up there to see them every day. We were near them several times a week for Zachariah's swim lessons, so we'd stop to see the baby on the way home. I was glad we were able to do that. And I think that it helped that Matt & I could offer some support and wisdom with them from our similar NICU stay.

But the last two weeks have seemed crazy with our regular swim lessons, then throw in the new baby excitement, plus we took food to them a few times at the hospital and home, and all our regular other activities. It's been a little nuts around here. I am hoping it settles a bit this week. I could use a little more restful quietness. And maybe a little sunshine too. Would that be too much to ask?

Mother's Day

I hope that you have a fantastic Mother's Day!

May your children be angels all day long.

May you get to sleep in.

May you not have to cook all the meals today (I'd say any meals, but that's probably not realistic now is it).

May you get lots of love, hugs, and kisses!

Happy Mother's Day!

Nephew!

I have been a parent for over 4 years now. While I love the experience and enjoy being a mommy, I have yet to experience the pleasure of being an aunt. I have been looking forward to that for a while.

Being an aunt is just different than being a mom. You have a little more freedom to spoil the kids, because then you get to send them home for someone else to deal with. And believe me there is a lot of spoiling that I need to do. My son has been the only grandchild in both mine and Matt's families for 4 years now. He has had plenty of spoiling. It's our turn now.

We found out in the fall that Matt's sister was expecting her first baby. We've been so excited and filled with anticipation. Then at Christmas, my sister surprised us all with a pregnancy announcement of her own. So we find that we're having two nephews due a month apart. Talk about plenty to spoil!

Yesterday at 10:00PM (around then, I can't remember exactly, maybe 10:04PM) my first nephew was born. (Son of Matt's sister, C, and her husband, L)

May I introduce to you, Patrick Charles.

He weighed in at a mere 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long. He has a head full of thick dark hair and has the softest skin I've ever felt.

As you can tell from the picture, Patrick is spending some time in the Special Care nursery. He's had a start eerily similar to our Zachariah. He was due on the same day of the month (just a different month) as Zachariah, we induced on the same day (different month) as Zachariah, got shipped off to the Special Care nursery like Zachariah, and is in the next spot over in the same hospital as Zachariah was. Strange. He seems to have the same sort of infection that's preventing him from being at his mommy and daddy's side.

It was so strange walking into her hospital room with no baby there. But it seemed familiar, it happened to me 4 years ago. As I walked through the same hallways with my brother in law, I was a little spooked at the deja vu-ness of the whole situation. Seeing him in that little bed under the warmest was just too familiar. Our Zachariah spent a week in that same nursery under the same warmers.

But we know that Zachariah came home after a week. He grew up big and strong, and he is a healthy (really healthy) 4 year old boy now. I have every reason to expect that Patrick will be the same.

And I have a little experience from the mother's point of view. Our breastfeeding relationship didn't start well. There are things I would change if I could go back and do that. So I pass that knowledge and wisdom along to my sister-in-law in hopes of preventing her the same problems.

Through all these thoughts and feelings, I'm so excited to meet my new little nephew. I'm thrilled to be an aunt, and I can't wait to get to know Patrick more and more each time I see him.

More Recalling

What a mess we have. In the last few days over 40 children's and infants over-the-counter medications have been recalled. I've been hearing about it on the news. I'm hearing about it on Twitter. And anywhere there are mothers with young children, we're hearing about it.

I'm with everyone else. I can't believe that this is happening. Why can't we have better controls in effect to save us from possibly giving our children things that are bad for them.

We do all we can to protect them from so many things. We strap them into their car seats and booster seats until they are 8 years old. We're told to cut our children's food into teeny bite-sized pieces until they're 4. We hold our infants off from trying certain foods to decrease the risk of food allergies.

There are so many things that we do without hesitation to protect our children. We have a whole list of restrictions that we start following from the moment we suspect we're pregnant or see that double line on the pee stick.

But when a product like over-the-counter Tylenol can't even be trusted, what can a parent do?

While we're lucky enough to not have been affected by the medication recall (seriously, I realize how totally lucky I am that I hardly have child medication in my house ever...maybe more about that on another post), we have been affected by another recent recall.

Before Zachariah was even born, I lovingly picked out items for his nursery to make it a place we would both love and enjoy. My parents offered to buy us a crib. I chose something on the cheaper side, because I didn't really have a preference and didn't want them to spend too much. I'm not sure whether that's where the mistake lies or not, but this crib that I hoped to last a while longer to be used with more future children, has been recalled twice now.

The first time there was a replacement part issued. I ordered it even though we were in the process of switching Zachariah to a toddler bed and tearing the crib apart anyway. I saved the replacement part and intend on fixing it when the crib is needed again.

Now, though, this same crib (yes almost 5 years later) has been completely recalled. They are telling people to please get rid of this crib. Please don't pass it along or donate it or use it. Please just get rid of it. Make sure that you check out the article if you own a Simplicity or some Graco cribs.

Now what? Now what do I do? I have a useless crib. I bought it 4 1/2 years ago. I really don't think that the store we bought it from will issue a refund, and that's assuming that I still have the receipt (which I think I might still have). Great!

I don't know about you, but I'm slowly (or maybe quickly) losing my faith in the agencies that are supposed to be protecting consumers. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they are notifying us now that they are aware of these problems. But why has it taken them so long to find most of them? I don't get it.

A challenge of the bloggy sort

I have been averaging about 4 blog posts a month. Sad.

There are always plenty of things to write about. And even more lately with one sister's life drama, and the impending birth of two nephews in the next month or so.

I don't know why when I have plenty of things to say that I can't just get on here and put my words into cohesive thoughts lately.

I'm never lacking things to say, just ask my husband. Anyone who knows me in real life would testify to that fact. I'm a talker and a conversation starter. I'm outgoing and don't usually have problems talking to anyone.

I can't believe that April is already over and May is firmly in our grips. Doesn't seem like almost half of this year is gone already. Time just flies in circles around me. And at times it seems like I just stand there and watch the days go by.

I'd like to challenge myself this month in my blogging. Maybe I could blog every day for a month? I just don't know if I can keep up with that. But I might be able to commit to blogging for a certain number of days each week. Like 3 new blog posts each week. That shouldn't be too hard, right. And if I go over that number, then good for me.

That's it. For the month of May, I'm going to have a new blog post at least 3 days each week. Anyone else want to join me? I mean, if you're already doing that regularly (as I know many of you are) it's not really for you. Maybe you can challenge yourself on your blog in another way.

But if your blogging has fallen by the wayside and you really don't want it to, you should join me. We can keep each other in check. Make sure to leave a comment letting me know that you're taking the challenge (or a challenge of your own), so that I can check in on you too. Who's in?