Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Absent

I've already gone missing for 16 days...yikes.  Eight of the days don't count, because I was deathly ill for six of them, and then the other two we were on a mini-vacation with the boys.  By deathly ill, I mean I'm pretty sure I had influenza, because I was knocked on my ass for 5 solid days.  So gross.  And by mini-vacation, I mean we took the boys to the Kalahari, which was an absolute exhausting blast.

So anyway, the last few days I've been meaning to post.  I have a ton of things to write about...my most recent book I've read (Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran), or my most recent addiction of subscription beauty box (Birchbox!! Ipsy!!).  But then I got home today and was getting dinner into the boys when my brother called.

"Hey," he said.  Pause.  "Have you talked to mom?"
"Yeah, I talked to her," I said back confidently. Because the last time my brother and I talked was over the weekend about Easter, and I said I'd call Mom about it.
But then there was another pause on my brother's end.  I'd said something wrong.  I added "I talked to Mom about Easter..."
"But have you talked to her...today...about what's going on?"  Fuck.  No.

So it turns out what's going on was my momma having chest pains, and checking her blood pressure at work (she works at a surgery center).  Her co-workers found out she wasn't feeling well, and did a quick EKG, and things weren't right, so my mom went to the hospital, where she was admitted and is currently having an angiogram to see what is going on.  She's gotten conflicting answers as to whether or not she's actually had a heart attack, but either way, it's scary as all hell.

All of the things I wanted to blog about before don't even seem worth it.  She's going to be fine, I KNOW she's going to be fine, but it's a huge wake-up call.  My mom is young - 53 - and heart disease runs in our family something awful.  My grandpa had a ridiculous number of heart attacks.  Nobody can remember for sure (which is sad in itself), but the common guestimate is 13.  See, ridiculous.  I'm already mentally changing our diet, our exercise (fine, lack thereof).  Thinking that my kids can't not know their grandmother, even though she's fine.  Fine.  Fine.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Bad, bad ears

So it turns out my sick kid is really Kid With an Ear Infection, Volume 3.  Wesley officially has the worst ears.  Ever.  Ok, maybe not ever, but definitely in the history of the Henrys.  How bad are they?

When he was a baby, he got 5 ear infections within a 7 or 8 month period, so in June of 2011, both he and Dawson got tubes put in their ears.  Dawson has been 100% ear infection free since then.  Wes, not so much.

He did manage to make it until December 2011.  By Christmas Eve 2011, his ears were leaking gunk.  Like, running out of his ears grossness.  Ear infection, with tubes?  Check.  A couple months later, we took him to the ENT doc, and discovered that both of his tubes had fallen out.  Ugh.  Two weeks later, Wes had an ear infection.  Double Ugh.

He had two more after that, back to back in May & June.  You know, the summer months when kids aren't supposed to get them.  So, we had tubes put in his ears (again) AND had his adenoids taken out at the same time in July 2012.  Well, all was right in the world until about 3 weeks ago when we took the boys in to the ENT for the 6 month check-up.  Oh yes, that's right, we discovered that both tubes were once again out of his ears.  Awesome.

And, now here we are, less than a month later, and the kid has an ear infection.  In both ears.  And he was so, so miserable.  I didn't take him in until Wednesday, so he wasn't really back to himself until Friday.  Poor little man.

And when it comes to taking medicine, he's the worst.  Yesterday he knew it was time for medicine, and after telling us that he wasn't going to "cry...or whine...or cover my mouth" when taking his medicine, we lost him.  Wes was no where to be found.  We finally found him laying on our bed, face down, covering his mouth.  Punk!

On the plus side, he's feeling much, much better, thank goodness.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Life Gets in the Way

It's funny.  I revived this blog all of what - 3? days ago, and I am already finding myself lacking in time to update.  Today it's sick kids.  Wes has a temperature that keeps coming and going.  Ibuprofen drops his temp and makes him feel better for awhile, but then it starts to wear off and he becomes Hot Mess Wesley.  To top it off, we are supposed to get 6-10 inches of snow between tonight and tomorrow night, AND David just went out of town for work until Thursday.

Serenity now!

And so - just a quick update from the days of my previous blog.  I had an old post titled "Toothless Wonder and Chunky Monkey"  Sadly, we had to put down our little Toothless Wonder almost exactly 2 years ago - March 14, 2011.  (Yep, I remember, because not only was it 2 days before Wesley's first birthday, but it was also pi day)  She lived a most fabulous life.  She was 16 and a half years old and one of my first babies, so it was (and still is) super sad.  The boys ask about her and pretend like they remember her, which is sweet.

We do still have our Chunky Monkey, although these days he is the furthest thing from Chunky.  He's 18 and a half years old, and is really starting to look it.  My little old man. 


Friday, March 1, 2013

Boom! I'm alive!

Is it too late to revive a blog that I haven't touched in 4 years, 4 months, and 1 week?  Most likely.  So what on earth have I been doing the last 4 (FOUR!!!) years?  Eh, reading here and there (I have a few awesome recommendations that I'll start throwing out eventually), and mainly raising these two maniacs:

Dawson Phillip, born November 25, 2008:
and
Wesley Earl, born March 16, 2010:
They have been amazing, sweet, and absolutely exhausting.  I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I want to get back to blogging...I've just been so awful at it for...er...4 years.  Hopefully I can get back in to a groove.  I miss reviewing books and sharing stories.  Any body still follow this in their feed?  If not...I understand.  Four years is an effing long time to "take a break" from blogging.