OH S#@&!!!!!!

Oh, I'm sorry, is that an inappropriate title? Well tough, because that's exactly what is going on around here.

Two days ago I started to not feel well. Sparing details, I became increasingly ill over the course of the day and decided that it was food poisoning. That night though I broke into fever, chills, aches, and congratulated myself on getting the intestinal flu from no known source. Yesterday was awful. Greg stayed home from work and I laid on the couch, moaning from the stomach cramps, spending quality time in the bathroom, and sipping Gatorade.

Today, approximately 15 minutes ago I got a phone call from Greg saying, "Um, I am coming home NOW." I knew exactly what he meant. I also heard from my mom that my sister Hannah came home from work today with the same crap. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, pun intended.) May I tell you that if our children get this, which they very well might, I am putting them ALL in diapers. Who cares that Aubrey is potty trained and Nathan is almost as well? I almost put myself in diapers so what can I expect from these poor babies of mine? I think we are in for a LONG weekend.

The real bummer is that we have to cancel our weekend trip to see our new nephew in Seattle. As sad as we are I am certain that no one would thank us if we brought this lovely new baby present with us. Still, we have been really looking forward to this weekend and are disappointed to have to postpone it. Baby Jonny is going to be big before I get to snuggle him!

Enough of this post. A post about poop. I'm sure you are all too disgusted to want to read anymore. I know I am.

Cry Baby Cry

Dane is my third kid. I KNOW in my heart of hearts that he will one day sleep. I mean, it's happened twice before, right? Yet, I am a misery of a mom, breaking into tears of exhaustion at a moment's notice and threatening to run away forever. Or at least to the local hotel for the night just so I can sleep. The kid has been beating us over the head for the past several days, really giving it to us this weekend when I wanted to look my most rested and lovely for my class reunion. But that's a whole other story and not nearly as important as the one about the rest I'm (okay fine, WE'RE) not getting.

You may not know this but I am an emotional exhausted woman. Just as there are emotional drunks, I become weepy, irrational, and bizarre when not given adequate rest. That might explain me huddled on the couch last night, arms wrapped around a pillow, sobbing to my poor husband, "I'm just so exhausted! We are never having another kid! Do you hear me?!?!? I can't do this again! I think I'm dying! Now, get me a Slurpee!"

Thus commenced "time for Dane to cry it out". While we were in Yakima he took to being up for 2 hours in the middle of the night, all smiles and joviality, and waking up multiple more times each night. This had to stop. I was obviously going crazy and Greg and I were dreading night time. So last night, around 10 p.m., Dane woke up and started in. And we dug in our heels. Every 5-10 minutes or so we'd go in, pat him, roll him back onto his tummy (he can do this easily but when screaming seems to only concentrate on lying on his back and kicking frantically), give him his binky, and leave again. Then we'd go back to our air mattress in the living room (since Dane was doing his screaming in our bedroom) and lie there, feeling awful. This lasted for one hour and 5 minutes. And I was counting the whole time. At 11:15ish the wailing stopped and we found him sound asleep, binky in mouth, hands on his blankie, looking beat up. We felt awful. BUT THEN he slept until 6:30 this morning, I fed him, and he went back to sleep until 9 a.m.! And I stopped feeling awful. He was his usual happy self today and the mere hope of sleep has given me strength for another day. I'll let you know how tonight goes. It is no wonder sleep deprivation of a form of torture. It will make you do just about anything.

Shameless plug

Hey there readers. I want to redirect you all, again, to another blog off of my page. It is my cousin Trina's site and she is in the business of making bags. Check them out, she really has a great eye for fabrics and I can vouch for the fact that she does a good job. Plus, her most popular bag is called "Shaine" which I cannot resist since it is my daughter's middle name. (Who happens to be named after Jarali Shaine, Trina's sister.) Anyways, take a look, I think she has some great stuff.

Second thing. This morning I packed up all three of my kids and took them to a movie in an actual theater. I went by myself with all of them. Honor me.

Our valley theater shows free kids movies every Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 a.m. I chose "Charlotte's Web" because the kids love it and it's safe. Nothing scary and nothing unexpected being as they have seen it before. I fell in love with my children all over again today because they LOVED IT. They both beamed while we stood in line for our popcorn and I was an over flowing mom of happiness as they exclaimed in excitement about everything, from the advertising posters to the popcorn to the cool seats (they barely weighed enough to keep them down) to the BIG BIG SCREEN! They were angels. They sat, ate their popcorn, giggled, said, "LOOK AT THAT MOMMY!" a hundred times, and took turns sitting on my lap. Where was Dane you ask? After nursing him shortly after the movie started I put him in his stroller, rocked it with my foot, and he slept in there THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE MOVIE. It was a miracle. We had a great time, I can't wait to do it again. If you have a Regal theater in your area, check it out. They do this all over the state. A person needs mornings like this to remind them that the work of parenting is so worth it. You are watching the world come alive again through someone else's eyes and it is magic.

A few more wedding pictures

Don't you love Lianna's shoes?
Matt's family: Dick, Shirley, Lianna, Matt, and Chris
Matt and Lianna with my mom and dad
The four blond sisters. I love how Lianna's colors photographed.
Seriously, the most precious thing ever.
Um, still precious
Good lord, more preciousness.
The Jones family photo. I wonder how old your kids are before you get a picture with everyone smiling.
They are a beautiful couple.
Aubrey dragging Nathan down the aisle.
Look how huge my whole family is these days! Twelve of us with number 13 due in 4 weeks.
Mr. and Mrs. Sackmann

The classy couple, shot gunning a beer at the reception.

Do a little blog spying

I am directing all my faithful readers to my new blog link, Julie and Jason. Julie is Greg's sister and they just posted a bunch of pictures of their new baby Jonny. Since they can't be on my blog this is the next best thing. We can't wait to squeeze him!

Oh, and in case you were curious, yes, he is our kid's cousin. And yes, our children do look albino in comparison. And no, Aubrey still doesn't have that much hair.

One last thing to leave you with. A little riddle for your weekend pondering. Ahem:

What is yellow and liquid and managed to find it's way not only onto the wall of the bathroom but the floor, the potty stool, the side of the bathtub, and yes, wait for it, the hand towel hanging above the toilet? Two clues: one, it rhymes with "me" and two, the potty training acrobat of the family is responsible. So please, come on over and use our bathroom anytime!

Project Fatten Dane

Dane had his 6 month check up on Tuesday. He passed length (almost 27 inches), development (yeah for the sitting, rolling, grabbing machine) but flunked his weight. At 4 months he was 15 lbs. 7 oz. and he was only 16 pounds 2 oz. on Friday. I knew he wasn't a chunky baby but I really wasn't expecting that. He is happy, eats well, is enjoying the solids that I'm introducing, and seems perfectly healthy. Yet....

His weight percentile has dropped since his 2 month appointment. This happened with Aubrey and Nathan (they were chubby babies but not chubby kids) but evened out around the 40th percentile. Dane dropped to that at his 4 month appointment but was barely at the 10th percentile yesterday.

So, I feet like a lame-o mom. As though I haven't been feeding the kid or I've been putting him on a strict vegan/water diet at 6 months of age. Or I'm making non fat milk instead of good healthy cream. The doc asked if he spits up a lot (YES) and sent us in for an ultrasound to look for pyloric stenosis (problem with the valve separating the stomach from the small intestines.) We did that today and he looks fine. Why is he not gaining weight then? We are attributing some of it to the constant spitting up and the doc put him on a reflux med. I'm also supposed to be feeding him at a near frantic pace it seems, alternating nursing and solids all day until he is pleasingly plump, or at least pleasing. Yet, don't get his stomach too full because this exacerbates reflux. But keep him full. But not too full. Like I don't have enough to do without worrying about the delicate full but not too full balance to strike with my poor starving baby.

Why is this so hard not to take personally? I suppose because as a mother of a baby I have one specific job: to attend to his physical needs. You know, eating, sleeping, changing poop, snuggling, etc. How hard can that be? Apparently harder than I expected because right now he's cruising towards being a jockey someday, or a featherweight boxer, or a poker for the fire. The plus side is that he looks healthy. He is a moving, grabbing, squealing, smiling, snuggling, EATING delight and that is a comfort. Wouldn't he be crabby and screaming if he was always hungry? In the meantime I will spend all my spare minutes (you know, those 2 minutes from 9:00-9:02 p.m.) researching high calorie food sources that will keep him just right full. Can you say avocados anyone?

He has a weight check in 6 weeks. Wish us happy fattening!

What a weekend! Not only did my sister Lianna get married to my good friend Matt Sackmann in a beautiful wedding, but we also welcomed our first nephew (see post below). Here are a few pictures from the wonderful weekend. Welcome to the family Matt!


Lianna and Matt before the ceremony.
Aubrey, the twirling angel.
KayLynn, eight months pregnant
The bride and the flower girl
My dad with Nathan, both looking dashing
Our spiffy family. Don't you love Greg's tie?
Reghan, Sheena, Tiana, Sara, KayLynn, and Hannah
Aubrey and Nathan. They did an EXCELLENT job by the way.
The parents: Richard and Shirley Sackmann and Julie and Wayne Montgomery
My mom and dad's "sons": Greg, Matt, and David
Presenting Lianna and Matt Sackmann!!
You may kiss the bride
Hannah, KayLynn, and David
My beautiful grandparents
First dance
Matt and his Mommy
Lianna and her Daddy
Shake that booty!
Go Mom and Dad!

As you can see, it was a beautiful wedding and a rocking reception. Perfect.

Welcome Baby Reynolds!

We want to announce that our sweet nephew, Jonathan Harold Reynolds, was born on Friday, July 11th. He is Greg's sister Julie and her husband Jason's first baby. He weighed 8 lbs. 4 0z. and was 22 inches long. He has a head full of dark hair, perfect looking lips, and kissably chubby cheeks. I tried in vain to figure out how to post the pictures of him that were forwarded to us but was unsuccessful so that will have to wait until my computer savvy husband gets home. Julie sounded amazingly well when I talked to her and I think both her and Jason love their new little man. We are going to visit in three weeks and can't wait to meet him. Congratulations Reynolds family!

Camping pictures

These are long over due but finally arriving. These are all from Greg's family camp out a couple of weeks ago. You may recall my post on the surprisingly happy time we had. Here's the proof!