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.

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.

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. 

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.

Still not reading...but I am getting ready for baby!

Ok, that heading isn't entirely true (at least, in regard to reading). I did manage to finish one book last week - Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain. Great premise (involved a boy with FAS), horrible execution. I only finished reading it because I paid full price for the book and I needed an escape from all of the yucky stuff that was happening. I have been re-reading a random Sandra Brown that I found in a box, but I've been going at it pretty slow because it's so freaking uncomfortable to sit for very long.

However, fun pregnancy things have been happening in the last week or so. David and I had all of our baby classes last week - Baby's First Weeks, Preparing for Childbirth, and Basics of Breastfeeding. Let me tell you - before the classes, I wasn't too scared of labor, but I was terrified of breastfeeding. Now my feelings are COMPLETELY reversed. Breastfeeding looked like a cake walk compared to all they made labor out to be. Yikes! Part way through watching the video of the unmedicated labor, I turned to David and said, "This baby is staying in me." I'm a wuss. :)

We are getting closer and closer to being ready for this baby, though. It's so exciting. We have a list of things to buy before he gets here, but otherwise we are ready! We have a ton of cloth diapers (yes, I still plan on doing that) and last night David and I decided to road trip it to an outlet mall about 45 minutes from our house to buy some baby clothes. Oh. So. Cute. I can see how people can spend SO much money on baby clothes. Currently the rest of the clothes that we bought are in the dryer. Once they are all washed and put away, I'll have to snap a picture and post it. Oddly enough, my favorite article of clothing for our baby so far has been all of the pajamas we've bought. Love baby jammies.

Grandma :(

My grandma passed away last Friday. I am so sad, but at least I know she's with Grandpa now.

Toothless Wonder and Chunky Monkey

Would you believe I haven't finished a book in almost a month? I have been in such a reading rut lately. I've started 3 or 4 books but just haven't been able to get through them. I haven't loved them, I can't fully concentrate on them, and worst of all, I can't really get comfortable while reading. It makes me sad, because I know once the baby comes (60 days!!) I really won't have time to read. Oh well.

I just had to make a post about my two current kids. See this picture of Gabby?
Don't her fangs look awesome? Well, now imagine this picture without her top left front fang. Yes, that's right, she lost her tooth. :( She had been having mouth issues for a couple of weeks (we even took her to the vet for it one day...I was a mess, thinking she had a tumor or something). They didn't find anything wrong, although later in the day David said he thought he saw her front fang tooth go sideways, leading us to believe she had a loose tooth. The vet did say she has pretty bad teeth, so we decided to switch her to an all wet food diet, which she of course LOVES. She has been devouring her wet food four times a day, and while we noticed she was still acting a little funny with her mouth, it didn't stop her appetite or her meowing.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess - it was probably bothering her quite a bit) she ended up loosing her fang tooth on Friday. I was on my way home from my Grandmother's and David called to say he found it on the floor. Poor little girl. Luckily, she's still acting fine and eating normal (or, like a pig - she ate 5 times yesterday). I imagine it's a relief for her to finally have it out.

Of course, Gabby getting wet food means - Toby now gets wet food as well. When we are giving out food, Gabby gets a nice sized portion, while Toby gets what amounts to a taste of it. Unfortunately, Toby has suddenly developed a LOVE for wet food. He doesn't beg for it like Gabby does, but now he devours it - his portion, and then he moves over to help Gabby with hers. David kept swearing over the phone while I was gone that Toby, our little Monkey, had gotten fat, but I kept laughing it off, because I was gone for 3 days only.

Of course, then I walk in the door and realize - holy cow!! Toby is bigger!! Poor little guy is definitely getting rounder in the mid-section. We'll have to keep an eye on him now when they eat to make sure he's not eating all of her food. So now our little Monkey is now our Chunky Monkey. Silly kittens.

Currently they are curled up together next to me sleeping. Gabby's even snoring a little. An example of how cute these two can be:
Aren't they cute little bookends? Too bad they aren't always that sweet...