Poop storm!

There are some days I wonder why I became a mother. Those days are few and usually far between, but yesterday and today have been those days. I mean I love my kids and wouldn't give them up for anything, but oh, some days make me want to rethink this whole motherhood thing.

WARNING: the following stories are pretty gross!

So yesterday, when Ezra was done for his nap, he had pooped in his diaper and then taken it off. Then he proceeded to step in it, pick it up with his hands, eat it, and smear it all over his crib and everything in it. It was everywhere. And of course it was right as a friend of mine was walking in to plan the Youth group year. So I had to pick Ezra up and put him in the bath tub. and wash the poop off of every part of his body (except surprisingly his bum was rather clean), including his mouth and nose. Then I had to go and put all sheet, mattress cover, blankie, crib bumber and his clothes in the washing machine. And then the fun part. I had to go and scrub the crib. I swear that kid grabbed each and every bar of his crib and smeared poop on every rail. It was gross. I am just so glad I am not pregnant because then I would have been puking over everything as well.

So if that wasn't bad enough, this morning Matthias woke up and Calvin had not put his diaper on right last night, so it had fall down his leg. Well, then of course, Matthias pooped and so the inside of his pjs were coated in poop and of course it had leaked out and on to the carpet where he was lying this morning (the kid almost never stays in bed, but seems to prefer sleeping on the floor). So another kid in the shower and more scrubbing. This is worse than the day I kept getting puked on (by Ezra and a friend's baby).

So I love my kids, really I do, but if I have to see any more poop that is not in a diaper anytime soon, I am going to be sending some kids to Grandma's house.

Busy Weeks

So, it's been a while. But in my defense. Life has been super crazy.

From July 29-Aug 2, I was working at the Racine County Fair in the Pampered Chef booth. The boys stayed with my parents. It was a very successful five days and I think the boys had a lot of fun at my parents' house. I know my parents had a good time. The only downside was that Matthias fell off the kitchen counter (he is such a climber these days) and broke his front two teeth. The right one just has a small chip out of it, but the left one is abot half gone. Obviously, they are just baby teeth, and thankfully, they don't seem to bother him, but that was a bit tramatic. Unfortunately, the left one is startig to turn black, so we are trying to get him in to see a pediatric dentist, as they will probably have to pull it.

Anyways, back to our busy schedule. So I worked at the fair from the 29th to the 2nd. Calvin's sister Leanne came on the 1st (Saturday) and Calvin and Leanne picked up the boys Saturday night. I finished the fair early Sunday evening and then packed like mad. 4 AM Monday morning, we all left for the airport. Leanne, Matthias, Ezra, and I left for Alberta to see Calvin's parents for a week an a half. Calvin could not go to Alberta, because he had to work.

Alberta was a lot of fun. We got to hang out with Calvin's family, meet Curtis' girlfriend, Leah, and see some good friends.

On August 12, my mother in law, the boys, and I made the long drive to Abbotsford, British Columbia (it took us 14 hours, but that included three 45-60 minute stops. The boys did surprisingly very well). We were going to Abbotsford, because Calvin's grandparents were celebrating their 50th anniversary and we were having a big family reunion. After we arrived, the family slowly began to trickle in, with everyone (including Calvin who had flown up for the weekend) arriving by Friday evening. While I was there I also got to see two really great friends, that I haven't seen since college and meet Kristi, Harv's girlfriend. Saturday was a busy day with family pictures in the morning, family fun in the afternoon, and a reception for Grandma and Grandpa's friends and family.

Sunday was also busy, as after church, we went to the otherside of the family (Calvin's dad's side) for coffee and lunch and then back to Calvin's mom's side of the family for supper. And then the mad packing started over again and 6:30 AM, Monday morning, we (Calvin, Leanne, Matthias, Ezra, and I, along with Calvin's parents, whom were dropping us off) left for the airport. After a long day of flying and a not so happy 2 year old (I apoligize to every poor person who had to fly from St. Louis to Milwaukee with us), we finally made it home. Which has filled the last couple of days with cleaning the house (Calvin would live in utter filth if he was a bachelor), unpacking (still not done), and trying to get my follow-up calls from the fair done.

So if that isn't enough of an excuse to not blog for a couple of weeks, I don't know what is! And of course, both boys came home with a cold and have been bears while trying to readjust to their routine and not having a hundred people around all the time. So it might take me a couple of weeks to feel settled in again.

Teeth!

Teething is such a curious thing. Babies act crabby, chew on everything, and drool like crazy for months. The whole time, you are thinking that it must be teething, but everytime you check, there are no teeth. You don't want to keep giving them tylenol or orajel, or whatever remedy you use, since you don't know it is for sure teething. It isn't until you fnally see one of those little teeth pop up that you can use hindsight and realize that that awful fever he was running or the fact that he has been sleeping like crap for the last four days was probably related to these little teeth. And once the teeth have popped out, most of the pain is gone and they are much more comfortable.
Saturday morning, Ezra's first tooth popped and then on Sunday morning the second showed up. We've been waiting for these teeth for a while, since he is almost 8 months old and Matthias sprouted his first two teeth at only five months. But they are here now!

Don't touch my cracker!

Ezra is learning that Matthias likes to eat and likes his food and does not share well. Today, we were getting ready to learn how to climb done the stairs (Ezra can get up really well, but cannot get done very well). Matthias was climbing all over and had a graham cracker in his hand. Well, Ezra thought that the cracker looked pretty tasty, so he reached over to grab it from Matthias. Matthias was not about to give up his cracker, so he pushed Ezra down the stairs. It happened so fast I couldn't catch him, even though I was right there. Thankfully we only have six stairs and they are carpeted and padded, even at the bottom, so Ezra was not hurt, but I think he will learn pretty quickly not to mess with Matthias' food.

Matthias is also learning to talk a lot more. Yesterday after we dropped off my sister Katie at a friend's house in Chicago, he said "Katie go bye bye". This was the first time he had said her name and one of his first sentences. It is so much fun to see him learning more and more every day.

Biopsies

So on July 1, I went to my regular doctor to get some moles looked at. She decided that I needed to get two of them biopsied and sent me to a dermatologist. On July 8, I went in and had the two spots biopsied. Ok, if you get queasy, skip to the next paragraph. How they do the biopsies is that they give you a shot of lidocain behind each spot. That numbs the area completely. Then they take a razor blade and scrap off the spot. This leaves a hole, which is can be very sore and is very, very itchy while it heals. Not so much fun.

I got the results back yesterday.

The first spot was not really a mole, but was a lump on my back. It looked like a bug bite, but it has been around since about January. The dermatologist thought it was (insert big long medical term here), which is basically scar tissue. The biopsy confirmed this, so that was no big deal.

The other spot was a mole that looked abnormal. There are basically three different results that you can get. The best is that the cells are benign and there is nothing to worry about. If this is the case, then you get a call in the mail. If it is one of the other options, you get a call from the nurse. The second possibility is that the cells are atypical and the worst possibility is that the cells are cancerous. Well, yester day I got a phone call. As soon as I answered the phone and heard that it was the nurse from the dermatologists I got nervous. The biopsies came back that the cells are atypical. This means that it is not cancerous, but pre-cancerous. It may turn into cancer, it may not. So what we are doing now is just keeping an eye on it. I will be going back in six months for a check. If nothing changes, I'll probably just have to keep going in for checks. If something does change, then we will have to treat it somehow. So the news was ok, not good or bad.

So that is what is new with me. Thank you to all who prayed for me while I was waiting for results.

I can't keep up with him!

Matthias learned how to crawl over his gate in his room this week. This meant that he didn't take any naps. He was too excited to sleep and liked the freedom of getting out of his room. This was rough on me as I couldn't get anything done as I as trying to keep track of where he was and trying to get him to take a nap. But right now we've got him beat. He bought a new gate that is ten inches taller than the old one and has straight bars so that he has nothing to climb on. So far he hasn't been able to get out and actually took a nap today.

Yesterday we celebrated July 4th with a bunch of my mom's family. It was a lot of fun. The boys enjoyed themselves. Here's a picture of them playing together for once.

He's on the move!

Ezra is on the move! He is a crawling pro and is not pulling himself up on the furniture to a standing position! He can also crawl up steps. It's a good thing that our house is pretty baby proof already. We really need to keep our eyes on him!

Matthias is doing great as well. He doesn't like to share much, so we are working on that. The boys sure do love each other. They spend time each day just looking at each other and making each other laugh.

Calvin and I are doing well. This past weekend we left the boys with my parents and went out to Iowa to attend the wedding of two of our friends from college. It was a great weekend. We got to spend a lot of time with a bunch of our friends from college. It was like a mini-reunion! We had a great time. I think the best part of the weekend was the drive there and back. Now usually I'm not a big fan of an 8 hour drive, but it was great for Calvin and I to reconnect and talk the whole time without kids interuppting. It was like getting to know each other all over again.

I did miss the boys a ton this weekend, so it was great picking them up Monday morning. I loved the looks on their faces when I came in to get them.

This is going to be a great week. Calvin has Friday off, so it will be nice to spend some time as a family.