Who has time for even-steven?

The differences from having one child, to two children (or more) amazes me.  I consider myself a pretty great mom.  However, MCO's birthday is around the corner, and I still don't have invites to send out.  With Buggy, the invites would have been sent out a month in advance.  I had all of her party plans/ideas finalized by the time invites hit the mailbox.  Tonight I am making them darn it!  At least I have a theme and a special birthday shirt (I'm having made) for her.  Buggy didn't have a custom shirt.

Poor MCO.  This isn't the first time I slacked on stuff for her.  She still doesn't, and will never have birth announcements sent out to family and friends.  I feel I made up for it by sending out baptism invites with her picture on them.  Buggy did have the traditional birth announcement, but no picture with her baptism invites.  Buggy also had everything new.  To babies, this doesn't matter.  It only matters to us parents. 

My feelings on this---
1. If I have it, why waste money for something I already have.
2. I'm not going to junk up my house with more stuff that they will out grow or out use 
3. Sharing is good.  It's a good skill to learn and use.

And you know with the first one, you always get the monthly/special holiday pictures done.  With MCO that isn't the case.  She hasn't even set foot inside a studio.  I can honestly say I didn't have time for this one.  MCO had colic very bad as a baby and wasn't really happy till she was 4 mos.  I'm not going to pay for pics with her crying in all of them.  Then, we had to fly to Illinois to take care of my mother on hospice.  But don't think she doesn't have just as many pictures, if not more, as Buggy.  (I take tons on my camera.)  I do think it's important for her to have her 1st birthday ones done at the studio just like Buggy.  We already have an appt to do so. 

Is it that parents don't have the time like they did with the first?  Maybe I had more focus on just Buggy, and now that I have two my focus has to be split?  It's not a who-do-you-like-more thing because I love both of my girls the same, but different!  Whatever the answer may be, I know my parents didn't do the even-steven thing either.  (Well, sometimes my dad at Christmas would make sure we had the same number of gifts, but never the same things.)  It's great not doing the same things for both of them.  I don't want my girls to grow up having even-steven everything.  I think that events/things should be special to them and shouldn't be even-steven.  And I hope Buggy and MCO won't grow up and compare what I have and haven't done for them. 

My little infected monster (MCO has Roseola)

Yes, MCO has it.  And I feel like I have infected all of the state.  Last weekend she had a very high temp (104.3).  She woke up in the middle of the night (or could have been early morning...I was too tired at the time) and was so hot to the touch.  It was like she was burning me.  I gave her some meds and got her down to her diaper.  Could this be the result of teething?  Where was this coming from?  She was find just a little bit ago.  I scrambled to find the thermometer in the dark so I could find out how high this thing was.  Half way through taking her temp the battery died.  Awesome!  I waited forever (45 min feels like forever with a sick little one) to see if the meds would bring it down.  She was still in her diaper and nothing seemed to work.  I packed her up to make the dreaded ER trip.  By the time I got there she had started to cool off.  It was 2:30 a.m. and I did not want to get back into bed after 5:30 only to have buggy up and ready for school at 7.  So we headed home.  On the way I bought a new thermometer.  Since I have my new van with tons of room, I took her temp in the parking lot of the store.  Down to 101.3.  Great!  This next day would be a rough one.

Her temp was up and down for the next 2 days.  After not being able to control it anymore we made a trip to the ER on Valentines day before any of us ate dinner.  Even the meds they gave us in the ER check in didn't seem to help much.  Temp was still in the 104's.  They ran a flu test and took some urine.  (That was one of the most horrible things to do to her and she hated every min.)  Everything came back negative.  She was good to go after spending 5 hours of our night in that stupid, small room.  Only thing they said was to watch it, and if it got higher to come back.  Otherwise we were to wait till Friday (today) to call her docs if she had no change.

Tuesday came and went with not much of a change.  She slept all day and was only awake for 2.5 hrs of the day.  Long enough to eat twice.  Poor thing just wanted to sleep, so I let her.  Wednesday morning and the high temp had finally come down.  99 was a great number to see!  She made up for only eating twice the day before and was more tired than usual.  Whatever it was was leaving her system.  WRONG!  After picking Buggy up from school, I noticed a rash had started on her belly.  No big deal---maybe something agitated it.  MCO went down for a nap and woke up with a rash from head to toe.  She looked like a little infectious thing.  I felt so bad for her, and for me.  What was this all over her body?  Chicken pox?  No, it was Roseola.  It's a rash that is viral.  It comes to be after a high temp (the reason the ER docs couldn't find anything wrong) and can hang out for a couple of hours to several days.  It's pretty common in children and only infects children under the age of 4.  Needless to say I have contacted Buggy's school and we won't be going to church on Sunday.  We are quarantined until this silly thing passes.  I am happy to report that the rash is already clearing up.  I don't see it lasting more than a day or two more. 

Oatmeal, Oatmeal, Oatmeal

Every morning is the same here.  I can expect Buggy to wake up between 6:30-7:15.  She climbs out of bed and makes her way to my room.  "Good morning mommy!  My tummy is so hungry for oatmeal."  Every morning the same request.  :)  I'm happy that she is not requesting pop-tarts (not that she even knows what those are), or some kind of breakfast that requires a lot of time preparing.  Every morning it's oatmeal with sprinkles.  She loves it, and it's so easy to make.  Instead of regular old sugar I use the crystal sugar (sprinkles) to make it more fun.  And she just loves it.  On rainy days I use all of the colors and make a rainbow.  Most days it's a request for pink. 

After eating oatmeal for a few days I try and mix things up by making eggs in a basket, toast and yogurt, or pancakes.  Buggy just looks at me and says "I don't want junky eggs" or "My tummy doesn't like that!".  Since when are eggs junky?  I would have been thrilled if my mom would have made me eggs in the morning.  I would have been jumping up and down over the sight of pancakes.  But not my Buggy.  Oatmeal it is.  Oatmeal every morning. 

MIA

I have been MIA for months now.  I had to fly home in October to take care of my mom (who was going on hospice).  My sister came home to help too.  My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August.  She had 2/3 chemo treatments and was waiting for the tumor to shrink so she could have whipple surgery.  Unfortunately, there was a hole in her stomach and she had to stop treatment.  Because we had to stop the treatment she could no longer get the surgery.  She needed the surgery to prolong her life.  In early October the doctors gave her till Thanksgiving time to live.  I took my girls and flew home leaving my life, hubby, and everything behind to take care of my mom with my sister.  My mom was such a fighter!  She never complained once.  Pancreatic cancer is very aggressive and very painful.  After a month and a few weeks (from coming home from the hospital) she passed away. 

It was the hardest thing I have ever been through.  I can't even begin to describe what my sister and I went through, saw, and experienced.  I would go through it all again for my mom.  I would do it in a heart beat.  She was the most amazing person I have ever known.  Strong, brave, and a fighter.  I miss her a ton and am taking things day by day.  We were very close and it's hard not having her around. 

I've been back home for a little over a month.  Things are getting a little easier.  The girls keep me very busy.  It's time to get back into my life as it was before I left.  I need to get back on here and get back into the swing of things.  Just letting all of you know where I have been and that I am back. 

The Prince, Princess, and Dragon

When will this story end?  It has been going on for weeks!  Let me explain.  We have Netflix and have been renting the various Disney movies for Buggy.  So far she's seen Aladdin, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty (her favorite), Ice Age, and Fox and the Hound.  She's into everything princess and toy story right now. 


I was unloading the dishwasher and we were talking about favorite colors.  She told me hers was pink and asked me what mine was.  I told her that I have two.  I really like orange and green.  She told me that I liked orange the best.  :)  Then she went on to tell me that she likes pink because it's a "girl" color, and orange was a "boy" color.  (Mind you, she'll only be 3 in a few weeks!)  I tried my best to explain that people can like any color they want to, that there are no "boy or girl" colors.  I gave a few examples of people that like colors that aren't stereotypical.  Anyway, in our house, for the last two weeks I have been a Princess.  Buggy is a prince, and daddy is a dragon.  It was fun for the first two days.  Now, I can't even talk to daddy without calling him dragon, or talk about him to other people unless I refer to him as dragon.  Buggy, excuse me, prince takes this very serious.  (I wonder if she continues this game at school, or if it stops at the doors.)  Before this she would pretend to be a mermaid or Sleeping Beauty, but just for a day.  We'd have to make sure to tell the mermaid (or who ever she was) good night and call her by that name.  We have never had the whole family be something for so long. 


I asked her last night after supper when I could be mommy again.  That I missed being mommy and I want daddy back too.  Buggy just looked at me like I was crazy.  She protested that I wasn't mommy and was in fact a princess.  But, that I could be mommy in the kitchen when I make supper. 


Has any of this happen to any of you?  What did you do?  I just want the "game" to end and be mommy, Buggy, and daddy again.  Any ideas?

Not the week I wanted

This week was staring out great!  Monday Buggy went off to school, I had my muffin tin all done, and even make leg warmers.  Monday night I was hit with a bug.  Tuesday I spent most of the time on cold meds and laying on the couch.  I was so thankful hubby came home early to help take care of the kids and cook supper, because there is no way I could have done any of that!  I tried to wash my hands and stay away from the kids as much as I could, but Buggy was sick the next day!  She was so upset that she couldn't go to school (remember those days of wanting to go?).  After every nose blow, she'd tell me how tissues make her feel better and she can go to school now.  Poor thing.  She just wanted to go play with her friends.  I had to explain that if she went she'd get all of her friends sick, so it was best to stay at home and go next week.  She didn't like that at all.  She continued to tell me how she was better after every time she blew her nose for the rest of the day.  Then Thursday came.  I got a call from my sister that my mom was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  I tried and tried to get a hold of her, and nothing.  I called the hospital and found out she was in the ICU.  Are you kidding me?!?  What is going on here.  So I called and talked to her, the doc,my sister, my aunt ,and uncle. It felt like I spent most of the day on the phone.  (Buggy thought that too, because when I was off the phone for good, she picked up her phone and started to play with it.  She made sure to come tell me that she was on the phone and I needed to be quiet.  She called a lot of people.)  Turns out my mom was very dehydrated and had an extremely low blood pressure.  She also has a kink in her stomach.  This could be from the first surgery, or the cancer is growing and moving things around.  Let's hope for the first!!!  The low blood pressure could mean an infection so she's on antibiotics for that.  Her vitals are up and looking better, but she continues to stay in ICU until she's more stable.  As I sit here and write this at 4:45 a.m., I also want you to know that Buggy woke up screaming in her sleep.  Hubby and Punkie (our dog) is sleeping with her now.  I couldn't go back to sleep because of all the crazy added stress from earlier.  I have to wake hubby up in 30 min to get ready for work.  I'm sure this is going to be a very long day.  But hopefully a good day at that. 


I'm sorry to my readers that I haven't gotten back to.  Once the girls are down for an afternoon nap I am hoping to find some computer time.  It's nice to just relax and catch up with my readers and the many other blogs I follow.  Hope you have a great Friday and please, please, please keep my mom in your thoughts and prayers. 

Here they are!

This is what I have been busy doing this morning and afternoon.  It was hard to find time today.  Buggy had school and Miss Crazy O was crazy.  :)  She's a little stuffed up and is needing more mommy time than usual. 

I love these leg warmers!  They are super easy to make, and I'm so in love with them.  I can't wait to make some more this weekend. 

Buggy was so happy to have some new ones to add to her collection that she went outside wearing them.  Mind you, it's 80 today.  Then, she insisted on taking her afternoon nap in them.  She's so silly.  :)