Zeus and a Lawn Chair

Another mix of humor and horror today.

I stood on my front lawn watching our greyhound Zeus doing 40mph down the street hauling our aluminium pink, green, and purple striped lawn chair behind him. And for a second, I just had to admire the comic beauty of the scene. A greyhound at full speed is something to see. Like watching destiny fulfilled, purpose accomplished, raison d'être in motion. The moment was tainted though, because I felt pretty certain I was never going to see him again.

Our greyhound, adopted from the track at 2 years old, was probably yanked from competition the first race he ran. He just isn't that into chasing things, especially not a fake bunny attached to a rail. But set a relentless, near weightless, swinging, scraping, lawn chair after him and boy, he could have been a winner!

When I had finally wrangled all three kids in the car Zeus was long gone. Eve was hollering because when I scooped her up I had already entered panic mode and the toy she was holding slammed into her face. She got no sympathy from me, though, I was imagining Zeus a mangled mess on the road. Eli was loudly pestering me to open his mini-bag of Doritos before I got him buckled. "Eli," I said, "this is kind of an emergency!" But that just got him going on about calling the firemen and bringing the fire trucks. I shushed him as only a stressed-out Mom can but of course I had to go into a detailed explanation of the kinds of things we can and can not call the firemen for, before he was satisfied. I suppose this may have been an important distraction from my excellent imagination coming up with an assortment of horrific ending to this escapade. Isaac, meanwhile, was a perfect angel. I think he must have been quite entertained, himself.

Well, I don't know if the Jehovah Witnesses can save souls but I do owe them the life of my dog. A car full of missionaries out spreading the Word warned me which way he went and then ended up tracking him down and bringing him in. It turns out, he ran out of gas in somebody's yard only a couple of streets away. He's got the endurance of a lap dog after all.

Needless to say I won't be tying Zeus up to a lawn chair ever again. Or maybe I'll just make it a heavier one...

Notice Zeus, sneaky dog that he is, always manages to get some body part onto the baby's blanket, even if it is just a nose and a toe. It's just so comfy!

Febrile seizure

I don't care how harmless a febrile seizure is, it has to be one of the scariest things for a parent to witness. It's indescribable the terror of seeing your little one phase out of reach mentally, twitch and groan and roll his eyes.

Our two-year-old, Isaac, had a fever-induced, or febrile seizure late Friday night. We prayed aloud desperately, called 911, and did everything we could to bring him back. Dillon had him in the bathtub but I had to leave the room to stand on the lawn waiting for emergency response people, I just couldn't stand seeing Isaac like that and so helpless to do anything. Things played out in slow motion. The firemen came and checked him out, gave us a few tips, and told us not to worry. They were right. After a near sleepless night of us watching over him, he awoke the next morning perfectly normal. He never did have any other symptoms.

For you parent out there, here are a few tips that the firemen gave me for when your child has a high fever and goes into convulsions (2-4% of children):

Motrin works more quickly than Tylenol so use that first and then alternate between Motrin and Tylenol every two hours.

If you start with Tylenol you can double the first dose.

Instead of immersing the kid in water, us a spray bottle and spray them down. It is the evaporation that cools them and immersion in a bathtub prevents that.

After they cool down and are wet, prevent them from shivering because that will cause their body heat to shoot back up again. Get a dry towel and hold them close to your body.

I am not a medical professional, so use these at your own risk and discretion. everybody has to use disclaimers to cover their patooties these days!

I felt like laughing... but mostly I felt like crying.

I prayed for some quiet. Isaac was sleeping, Eve had barely stopped fussing in her crib, I knew I had an hour tops before one or both of them woke up. I set Eli up with some games on pbskids.org, locked the front door and went to lay down in my room. I could hear Eli's chair squeaking on the laminate floor as he shifted in his seat so I turned the fan on and put my head under my pillow. The clock was ticking and I needed a nap.

It was only 35 minutes later that I was rattled awake by Eli banging around in his bedroom, where Isaac should have been sleeping. I drug myself out of bed and trudged into his room to preparing a nice little lecture about waking mommy up. Isaac looked a little bleary eyed himself and picked him up out of bed for a snuggle. But where had Eli gotten off to? He had suddenly disappeared. Out in the living room I immediately noticed the front door wide open. My heart started beating a little faster and I stepped onto the stoop and looked toward the street.

Now here is the moment when my world reworked itself in a matter of minutes. How often can we pinpoint the moments when growing up occurs? How often can we say, in the moment, that what is happening is the beginning of a new era? Most of the time we just stumble along scratching our heads bemoaning how quickly our kids are growing. But this time I saw it happening.

Eli was out in the road, coming around behind an ice cream truck, giving the ice cream man a casual wave with his free hand, his other clutching two firecracker pop sickles. The road is far enough away from my front door that I could barely hear the 300 pound ice cream man in his little three wheeled cart say, "See you later," over his shoulder as he pulled away. I think I literally went into shock. I stood and watched Eli come toward me. I don't remember what I said to him. I know I didn't yell or even get angry. I do remember what Eli said to me. I had sat down on the front step and put my forehead in my hands. It was quiet for minute. "I'm sorry." he said. At least he knew he had done something wrong. Then Eli pointed out that he didn't get hit by a car, that the ice cream man wasn't' a stranger, he was just the ice cream man, and that if someone did take him away, they would bring him back later. "I will always come back, Mama," he said. I could hardly stand it.

Eli told me later that he ran outside when he heard the music from the truck and had told the ice cream man to, "Wait just a minute." He ran back inside and into his room where his little bother was sleeping. He took the plug out of the bottom the the ceramic car bank he and Isaac share and shook, jostled and pounded all the money out onto the floor. That is when I woke up. (And Isaac too) By the time I trudged to the front door, It was all over. I still don't know how much he gave that man. I am pretty sure he was either swindled by an cynical, jaded, fat man with crushed dreams, or granted a screaming deal by a sweet soul who loves children and couldn't say no to the poor little shoeless kid who's parents are nowhere in sight.... "How much money did you give him," I asked. "four", he said The ice cream man gave him a nickle back.

I sat outside with my two boys sharing the pop sickles that had brought such a poignant yet elusive shift to my world. I guess the bottom line is that Eli doesn't need me anymore the way I thought he did. Yes, I will be there to make sure that he doesn't get run over, that he doesn't get snatched by a stranger. But he doesn't need me to explain to him that we have to trade money for ice cream, he doesn't need me to flag down the ice cream man down, or ask him politely to wait a minute while he gets his money. He doesn't need me to help him pick our what he wants or explain to him that he only has enough money for this or that. He doesn't need me to remind him to think about his little brother. He is all ready walking out my door. And you have to know what I mean by that.

Big News

I haven't posted in a while. Lots of things have happened. Isaac turned two, Eve rolled over and got her first two teeth (two separate events), and Eli turned four, today actually. Dillon has been working long long hours finishing his project. I spent a luxurious weekend at Sunriver with my mom and sisters, and more more more. But the craziest thing of all is that we put on offer in on a house and it was accepted! If all goes well we will be neighbors to my brother John and Mimi and their little kiddos Jensen, Ellie, and Mia! That's right! Next door neighbors! I am trying not to get too excited, just in case the deal doesn't work out, and also because I am getting attached to this dinky little duplex. And maybe, just maybe, the older I get, the more I fear change. I sincerely love my simple, low frills life. Not that the new house has a ton of frills, it's a pretty humble place really, but the back yard is awesome and the neighbors rock.

Oh and here's just a funny photo of the boys saying good morning to Eve the other day. They love to jump into her crib to play with her.

Writing Challenge

Anyone interested in a fun way to be creative and expand your mind? Join our newly formed online writing group! It is for all ages and all skill levels. This is our second challenge and it was my task to come up with the topic, or prompt. I decided to go with a creative writing this time around. The challenge is this: Eavesdrop. Eavesdrop on old ladies in the grocery store, the slick looking guy on his cell phone at the post office, your husband or wife on a business call. Whatever. Get three or four interesting lines of dialogue (without knowing any context) and then create the back story, the situation behind the conversation and where it leads. Make those few real bits of conversation the basis for created characters and situations. get creative. There are no rules other than using actual dialogue as a jumping point. If ANYONE is interested, please leave a comment and then share your story with me by June 1st. Post it on your blog or email it to me. If this gets going, we'll start a new blog page just for our writing group. Thanks to Rebecca for starting this little group. Here is a link to the first writing challenge and her response.

Easter Photo Shoot

We dressed the boys in their Filipino barong's (formal Filipino attire) for Easter this year and I am definatley making it a tradition. They looked so handsome, and I want them to benifit from their rich cultural background!

Eli and Me!

Eli, my little man. I think I will treasure this photo forever. Usually behind the camera, I don't get to see myself in Mommy mode. Part of me can hardly believe thats my son, that I am his Mommy!

New Version

After reading my essay over again, I have decided that all I really needed was the last paragraph. The rest of it was just a lot of fluffy philosophizing that was quite disjointed. Not very interesting to read. So, my essay is now just a paragraph long but sometimes less is more, right? What do you think?

Dillon kisses all four of us in our sleep every morning at 4am before he leaves for work. He works twelve hour days, then comes home and vacuums. We oogle at our kids together over dinner. He holds my hand during story time. He shows our little boys how to fold their arms for prayer at night. He brings me a burp cloth and situates it carefully on my shoulder as I rock the baby. We talk about politics over dishes: he washes, I dry. We are in the middle of the hard work of true love.

Writing Practice

My friend Rebecca issued a writing challenge and a topic about a month ago with the deadline of April 2. True to the form of my college days, I wrote this essay late at night on the due date. I wanted to participate as a way to oil up my rusty writing skills and boy are they rusty. In college I could have produced something pretty polished in a couple of hours. I am posting this in rough draft form because I can hardly keep my eyes open any longer. I should be embarrassed but I really want to start writing again and I need a structured way to do it and some accountability. Thanks for providing that that for me Rebecca!

In short, the theme was "Is this what romance looks like?" She based it off several excellent essays written by women and published with Redbook. You can find them here.

Here is my beginnings of an essay:

“Daddy’s home,” I say to my three little ones and turn to watch my husband, Dillon, come through the door wearing his heavy work boots, non-descript jeans, bright-orange safety t-shirt, and an exhausted expression. He kisses me hello and says, “I don’t know how you can work like this.” He is, of course, referring to me standing at the stove cooking dinner in my 3x10’ kitchen while our two boys stand on the top rung of a step ladder at my elbow and the baby sits in her bouncer chair in front of the refrigerator. With the dishwasher door open and the dog waiting around for a morsel to drop to the floor, that leaves me with about 2 square feet to move around in. I feel a subtle fear creeping in my mind. We look so different from each other in this snap shot.

Inseparable since high school, we now have just a few minutes a day together. For nearly a decade, our lives were so intertwined that our identities blurred. Now the division of responsibilities makes it so we can hardly relate our day to day lives. Where once we would talk for hours sharing every minute detail of our lives, we now exchange a quick bullet list of notable events and important information because there just isn’t time for more. I wonder where our Hollywood worthy romance is in the middle of all of the practicality. I wasn’t prepared to recognize the true face of romance that happens after the credits roll on the big screen.

We both work daily building our life together, but through starkly different endeavors. I am home absorbed in nap schedules, feeding times, and laundry. Dillon is entrenched in construction schedules, budgets, and blue-prints. We once shared the easily visible framework of our lives but now it is the foundation we share, set deep and sure.

Dillon kisses all four of us in our sleep every morning at 4am before he leaves for work. He works twelve hour days, then comes home and vacuums We oogle at our kids together over dinner. He holds my hand during story time. He shows out little boys how to fold their arms for prayer at night. He brings me a burp cloth and situates it carefully on my shoulder as I rock the baby. We talk about politics over dishes: he washes, I dry. We are in the middle of the hard work of true love.

Apple Anyone? and other slices of life...

The kids know that they can help themselves to certain healthy snacks anytime the feel hungry. I am beginning to rethink that policy...

We keep are pacifier securly attached to Arabella at all times so that Elijah never has to go without.

First pedicure! What cute little girly toes. (Inspired by Gracie, an angel heart recipiant who passed away last month.) I have to say, Eve has little dainty feet attached to some of the chubbiest baby legs around.

Had to include this photo of our little tough guy Isaac.

Senior Ball

I saw this photo in my file and couldn't resist posting it on honor of our ten year reunion this summer. At this point, we had no idea we were going to get married. We were just having a lot of fun. (I was happy to be with the coolest guy at the ball. Notice his crown is a lot bigger then mine.) It was held at the Union Station in Tacoma, a great place for a Ball.

I just have to add, my Mom made that dress for me. I wanted something totally unique and with Dillon in his white tux, we really stood out.

"Scary Eyes"

Eli calls this her "scary eyes." I just have to say that although all my kids do look a lot like Dillon, but those eyes are mine, baby.

PS I found the camera cord under the bed. The logical place, you know.

Blessing Day Photos

My beautiful baby girl. She was hard to photo that day. She was either crying or sleeping when the cameras were out. Don't you think the little bonnet is cute. I wasn't even planning on making it but I am glad I did.

Here is a photo of all the family members who attended. What a group! You can see baby Gavin who was also blessed with his Mom Heather in the middle.

Hole in One!

Here is my Dad, retrieving the ball from his hole-in-one last week. Can you believe it? I think the greatest talent my Dad has is his ability to tackle anything he wants to do with dedication, determination, and hard work. He has only been golfing seriously for a few years now, really, and that hole-in-one was not just a lucky shot. Nice job Dad.

Thought I would throw this picture in since I was doing a little blogging about my Dad. Eve is lucky to have so many wonderful Grandparents to love her.

Sorry, No Photos.

Living the technology filled lifestyle that we all lead, there are a few items that, once lost, tie your hands and are a PAIN to replace. I for instance, have lost the cord that transfers photos from my camera to my computer. So, I cannot post any pictures of my beautiful baby girl on her blessing dress, of my joyous visit with Mimi and Mia, of the Valentines Day sugar cookies we made, or of the Eli's proud moment when he held his little sister without any help for the first time. Most people check blogs and scan the photos and move on. A post of pure text will probably get passed over fairly quickly but hey, I'm in the mood to blog and will not be stopped.

We blessed little Eve in my sister's ward in Maple Valley along with her son Gavin who was born just after the new year. Dillon gave an inspiring blessing and I am so grateful that he holds and honors his priesthood. I was also happy that so many of our family members came out to a 9:00 am service after an hour of driving (for most of them) to attend services of a religion half of them don't belong to. I suppose they all know how close the church is to our hearts and to who we are and because they love us and our children, they try to be there for those special times. It was a wonderful day and Eve only pooped all over her dress AFTERwards so I would say everything went perfectly.

Most of you have been following the story of my niece, Mia, who had a heart transplant in November. She can't be around any babies or children and so it had been over two months since I had seen her (my nursing baby kept me away). Well, I finally got over to visit last week and words can't describe nor pictures do justice to the change in her. I have never had such spontaneous joy in my heart as when I saw her huge smile, her plump, pink legs, felt her strength as she sat up, and heard her little voice, so long silenced by a breathing tube. The last time I had seen her she was hooked up to more tubes and monitors then you would have thought possible on such a tiny body. Now looking at her its as if the pain and suffering I saw in her are just melting away. She truly does have an angel heart. Pain and sorrow are a part of this life and Mia reminds me of the beautiful mornings that follow all dark nights. I have to say that Mia isn't the only one I was happy to see. I have missed Mimi and loved the chance to sit and chat with her. I have much to learn from her after having gone through this experience. I love you Mimi. Oh and I love my bro John too but he wasn't there that night.. he he...

The last little but of blogging I will do is going to be completely unrelated to previous topics. I want to recommend two films to all of you are interested in something that goes beyond Hollywood bling now and then. Once and The Namesake. Put them on your Netflix cue, that's all I'm going to say. (For all my Mormon friends, Once is rated R for some language, but its spoken in Irish and Czech accents so it's not the same, Just kidding, but thought you should know)

To all of you who have made it to the end of this blog, wow, you must really like me. Leave a comment so I know who you are. I'll leave a Valentine's cookie out to the little elf who steals remotes and cords, (kids shoes and puzzle pieces) and maybe he will return my camera cord and I can post some pictures next time.

Growing Kids!

Oh my little Eve! She is not a perfect baby, but that little smile just melts my heart like nothing else! She is growing so fast, already in 6/9 month clothes. I have been tougher on her than the other kids. At two months she is already falling asleep/crying herself to sleep alone in her crib. No coddling for baby number 3!
I am beginning to think that I don't know how to diaper a baby. Eve has a blow out every single day. I thought I would solve the problem by going up a diaper size from 2 to 3. Now, instead of pooing up the back, she poos out the legs. They jury is out on which of these is preferable. And I'm not skimping on brands either. Huggies have never let me down in the past!

This may not seem like a note worthy photo but little Isaac grows up so effortlessly it practically breaks my heart. We introduced the big boy bed and he didn't even skip a beat. He has never cried for his crib (which is still set up in his room), never had trouble falling asleep, never even tried to get out of bed! I feel like he has been walking out the door since the day he was born. So independent, and in such a matter of fact way. He takes care of business, no fuss.
Eli is such a sweet little man. Here is is cuddling little Eve and holding in her pacifier. The expression on his face is priceless. He is saying something like, "It's OK baby girl, I'm right here,"

Had to include this photo. Dillon has been working so hard these last few weeks. Here he is grabbing some quality time with the kids watching a movie and having popcorn, except he couldn't keep his eyes open.

Grandma's Jammies

My Mom makes Christmas Pajamas for all thirty something of her Grandkids every year. They get better every time.

Baby Gavin

My sister, Heather, delivered her 5th baby on January 2nd. Gavin is a big boy and adorable. I've heard him described as a sleepy puppy. So cute! This photo was taken when I visited them at the hospital. I think I will always treasure this photo of us with our new babies. With seven years between us, who knew we would have new ones at the same time?

A visit to the job site

We recently had a family day in Seattle. We visited Dillon's job site and went to the zoo. I think Eli preferred the construction machinery and the man-lift (elevator) to the animals. It was COLD but a lot of fun. (Eve is in the office taking a nap on one of the guys Dillon works with - so cute to see that pink bundle in the arms of the tough guys)

Dillon's building is nearly complete!

Dillon has been working day and night lately, as his project is approaching completion. He has been heading up the removal of the huge tower crane in the center of the building. In order to accomplish this they had to set up another giant crane in the street. I think they lifted out the last piece today. What a process! You can see the two cranes in this photo. Isn't his buildng beautiful?