Playing is Tiresome Sport

Last week I bought Spencer a bouncy seat and he gets soooo excited playing in it. He loves to bat and grab for the toys and to watch the colors and lights. He kicks his legs and smiles when you put him in it. Well, he played so long this time he completely wore himself out! I love these pictures, they just make me smile!

The Sickness Continues

As if we haven't had enough visits to the doctor in the past few months, Madison now has pink eye. This weekend I quarantined Justin away from the kids so they wouldn't get the stomach flu and now I am going to have to quarantine Madison away from Spencer so he doesn't get pink eye.
All I can say now is that mama's hands are raw from washing them and taking care of everyone and if I go down, everyone's goin' down!

Sickness & Halloween

Friday started like any other day other than being really excited for Halloween. I had joked as soon as I got to work that I was ready to go home. Well, little did I know!
Justin called a little bit before 10am and the conversation went something like this:
Justin: "You work with a bunch of doctors right?"
Misty: "Yeah, why?"
Justin: "Is it bad to be throwing up blood?"
Misty: "Uh, YEAH!"

Okay - Yeah, met Justin at the ER. Not going into details, but he had a REALLY bad stomach bug, but is doing well now. On a side note - have you ever been to the ER on a holiday such as Halloween? It was a little busy. I ended up staying home with my very sick husband on Halloween. SO, needless to say he wasn't going to be handing out any germs with the candy that night.

I got Madison ready; she was going as a bat. She couldn't decide on how she wanted her makeup done, it changed a few dozen times. She ended up going trick-or-treating with some neighbors and had such a good time that her handles on her candy sack broke!
Spencer was not in such a festive mood. He absolutely didn't like his costume. Probably because it was made of fleece and it was sooooo hot! After all of the trick-or-treating was finished, I tried his costume one last time and he was content. We strolled over to a few neighbors to show off it cuteness. I hadn't gotten a single photo of Spencer in his costume so, Clay, our awesome neighbor, took these great shots of him! By the end of the evening, we were all exhausted!

Spencer the giraffe!

Giraffe's have tails!

Spencer was very tired and ready to get out of his ridiculously hot costume!

Madison the bat.

Madison's skull and crossbones pumpkin!

Justin's free-handed pumpkin.

Madison and her trick-or-treating friends.

What Not To Wear - Overalls Edition

Yes, I cute-ified my son. It wasn't that hard to do, you just had overalls! Yes, overalls. The best and cutest inventions for babies and toddlers. I'm not quite sure what it is, but any baby, yes - even the ugly ones- become cute when put in a pair of overalls.
There does come a point in your life when overalls are not that cute anymore. For instance when you are 9 months pregnant and you wear overalls into Walmart with flip flops and a tank top that doesn't come close to fitting around your stomach!
Or, if have worked all day in your overalls and decided to go to Walmart to get your dinner and you decide to take off your dirty shirt, but leave on your overalls. To all those out there who choose not to wear clothing underneath of your overalls, please, for the sake of us all, cover up! Put clothes on underneath of the overalls. I really don't enjoy seeing your beer gut or how many stretch marks you have.
If anyone would like to see examples of "What Not to Wear - Overalls Edition" - visit your local Walmart on a Friday night.
Now, back to the cuteness - it was finally cool enough here to put Spencer in some overalls, so below are him before we left for daycare.

Pumpkin Patch and Birthday

Madison celebrated her 11th birthday on Saturday at the skating rink. She had a few friends and skated the afternoon away. She ended up with a bruised knee, but that was it for the injuries. Yes - I skated. As a matter of fact I was dared to backwards skate. Frankly, my family didn't believe that I still had it in me. Considering I lived at the skating rink all through high school, it was like riding a bike, you never forget. Anyway, Madison had a good time and she is now 11 years old. Wow, time flies. While at the skating rink, she got to go in the prize machine for 30 seconds and that was fun. Her hair and hood were blowing everywhere. She figured out really quick to catch the prizes up against the wall instead of trying to grab them out of the air. At the end of the day, all was well.

Madison in the prize machine

Madison after the prize machine

Last weekend Grandpa Willie and Nana Jean came to visit. We decided to go to a pumpkin patch since it was so nice out. It is hard to believe that it is October and still 75 degrees outside. The day was beautiful. Spencer and Grandpa enjoyed sitting under the tree and talkin'. Nana, Madison and I went to look at the bunnies and went on a pretty cool hay ride. Madison ended up swinging in one of the hammocks and tire swings before we picked our pumpkins and left for the day. Here are pictures from our fun day.

Spencer and Grandpa Willie at the pumpkin patch

Madison and the bunnies at the pumpkin patch

Spencer and Grandpa Willie "talkin"

Spencer showing off his team spirit and rooting for the Colts! Though he could root all he wants, they still lost!

GERD Part II

The past couple of weeks have been exhausting to say the least. I am finishing up my second week of work and Justin is working on midterms. There is simply never enough time to sleep. Spencer began having stomach issues again last week. He has had three episodes of throwing up while on his back. One of these times he was gagging and choking on it. A different time he was asleep in his crib and woke up covered in vomit. I have spoken with the nurse at the pediatrician two times last week, but they attributed the sickness to his vaccines. Justin and I started documenting his vomiting and his pain attacks (blood curling screams and cries) and it was evident to us that something was wrong.
We went back to the pediatrician today and Spencer has sleep apnea (caused by the GERD) and the Zantac alone isn't helping, so he added a second medicine today. The second medicine is supposed to speed up the emptying of his stomach to hopefully prevent it from coming back up. Spencer is sleeping in his swing again, so we don't have any more episodes of choking.
This has been so stressful for the entire family. Madison is scared out of her wits when he starts screaming, she begins to cry as well. So, one of us tries to comfort Spencer while the other tries to comfort Madison.
We have been living day to day. We don't think about anything too far in advanced because frankly we are just worried about having clean clothes, clean dishes and food to eat - everything else can wait.
We check in Monday with the pediatrician to let him know how this new batch of medicine is working. If that doesn't work, then we are going to switch to a different type of medicine.

The Dreaded Day

I spent A LOT of time yesterday planning out what needed to go to daycare, what I needed to take to work, packing lunches and setting out clothes. I was COMPLETELY prepared. Spencer was eating at 6am, 10am, 2pm, etc., in four hour increments. This was going to work out well because Justin and I could both get up at 6am and get everything ready for the day and I could leave by 7:30.

WRONG, totally WRONG. Spencer had other plans, like sleeping. He didn't wake up for his 2am feeding until 3:45am! Which meant that he was in no mood to wake up at 6am. Justin got him up, changed his diaper, got him dressed and gave him his medicine. All I would have to do was to feed him. Justin left at 6:30 and I proceeded to wake up Mr. Sleepy Pants.

I tickled his cheeks, chin, belly and back and......

he continued to sleep.

I talked to him, turned all of the lights on, tickled some more and.....

he slept some more.

There was no way he was going to wake up. So Madison took my picture with Mr. Sleepy Pants as I headed back to work.

Today wasn't horrible, it wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. I handed him off to the sweet lady at daycare and after giving him a hug, I had to walk away. I got onto the interstate and drove the familiar road to downtown. As the rain fell, so did my tears. It is a given that a mother misses their child, but it really is about missing the little things:

• Having Spencer gaze into my eyes while feeding him


• Making a hot breakfast for Madison


• Watching Spencer sleep oh so soundly


• Hearing the bus pull up each morning


• Doing laundry a little bit at a time instead of all of it on the weekends


• Going and getting the mail when I hear the mailman come


• Going for a walk with the stroller


• Fixing Madison's hair before school


• Nuzzling up against Spencer's head because it is warm and smells like a baby


• Having Spencer fall asleep in my arms


• Hearing the school bus drop off the kids and waiting for Madison to walk through the door so I can ask her how her day was


• Trying so hard to get smiles, coos and other sound out of Spencer and being lucky enough to witness them

It was nice to hear the comments from co-workers that they were glad I was back. At least knowing I was needed at work took some of the sting away from being needed by my children. I cleaned off the inch of dust that had accumulated on my desk and tried to organize the papers that had been placed there for me to take care of upon my return.

The day was done and I headed home to see my sweet girl who had three teeth pulled today and my precious boy who needed some mommy hugs.