I'm back!

For now, at least! I'll really, REALLY try to keep up with posting this time around. I swear though, three kids did me in. I was so with the program with two.... now, not so much. Speaking of kids...




Everyone's been doing pretty well, finally. Caroline broke her arm back in April (fell off the couch. WHO DOES THAT?), and had to have emergency surgery on it in the middle of the night. That was great fun - I've never had a kid 1. break their arm or 2. need surgery for anything. Fortunately she did fine, and I financed another room at good old A.I. duPont.




THEN, Ed went and tried to kill himself in a tractor trailer wreck on May 12th. Fortunately he's fine, too - shattered his pelvis and had some nasty road rash on his arm, but he's well on the way to recovery. Nothing like a few more gray hairs for the whole family...





And that's about it around here.

So. Poison Control.

I've never needed the number for poison control before in my life, until this week. Of course, with Henry, you would think I'd be prepared and have it on speed dial. Well, now I do. On Thanksgiving morning we were getting some food ready to take to my mom's, and Henry was playing in the dining room. The room NEXT TO the kitchen. Approximately 5 feet away. Of course, it got too quiet. So I go to check on him, and he's pointing to his mouth with the look of "I don't like what I'm eating and I'm going to spit it out so you better stick a hand under my mouth pronto or it'll hit the floor." So, being the good mother I am, I stick my hand under his mouth. And he spits. And spits. And spits. But, there's no food. Then, I realize he's smelling awfully, I don't know, rosy. And I look on the window sill (the high ones, above the breakfast bar), and my little jar of fragrance oil with the sticks (I have no idea what the technical name would be) is not where it's supposed to be. Instead, there's a puddle on the breakfast bar, a dining room chair, and the floor. And I guess a puddle in Henry's mouth, which he's trying his damnedest to spit out. So I go and hit up google and get poison control's number, call them up, explain what happened and they say "Oh, he should be fine." Praise the Lord. I was NOT feeling an emergency room trip on a holiday.
So, fast forward to today. Everyone was up bright and early at 4am this morning (yes, THAT'S a whole other story), so at about 10am I put Henry down for a nap. He, apparently, had other ideas, and proceeded to find the little jar of Vicks Vaporub which was on his changing table (yes, *I* know that's a stupid place for it. Key word there *I*), open it, and eat it. And rub it in his hair. And in his eye. And then proceed to scream bloody murder. I'm thinking menthol stuff in the eye hurts. So I get him, notice the minty smell about him and the bright red eye and the greasy mouth. And go look up the number of poison control again. Apparently, eating Vicks Vaporub won't kill you (at least if it's less than a couple tablespoons), but rubbing it in your eye can seriously mess your eye up. So they told me to flush Henry's eye out with water for fifteen minutes (TWO YEAR OLD. SCARED OF RUNNING WATER. Fun, I tell you.) and then take him to the emergency room. So we do that, wait for a couple of hours to see a doctor, and Henry gets some dye in his eye to check for a chemical burn. Fortunately there was no sign of a chemical burn, but he looked pretty funny with his dyed eye.

ER trip #4675497483

ER trip #4675497483 occurred last night. And I bet you can't guess which child was involved this time! Aww, you're right. It was Henry. Such a surprise, I know. Did you know AI DuPont has a wing named after him? At least they should. Actually, this accident wasn't REALLY his fault. He was leaning against the screen door looking at Keith playing in the backyard, and Keith decided to come in. So he pulled the door open and out tumbled Henry, who proceeded to land, face first (of course!), on the brick step. So off we went. Six hours later, we got home with the diagnosis of split lip (they don't stitch those), a broken tooth (but not broken enough to do something about) and a loose tooth (go see a dentist). Yeah. The pictures aren't that great, mostly because Henry doesn't understand the words "stand still!".

Guesses, anyone?

So, I just got the bill for Keith's stitches at AI duPont. Our portion is measly, but the total bill was $1162.00. I LOVE INSURANCE! I take back all of the bad things I've ever said about my insurance company. Well, except for the part about them not covering the midwives. But everything else - I take it back. So, want to guess what Henry's bill will be? He went to the ER Monday at 3:30pm, was admitted Tuesday morning around 4am, and was discharged Saturday around 1pm. Anyone? The winner gets the grand prize of.....




paying my copay!!!!



(just kidding!)

Pictures from the zoo

He's coming home!!

Henry's coming home today! Ed called about an hour ago and said that they'd be leaving the hospital around 1 or 2 this afternoon. I am so excited! I am currently home because one of my clients had a baby last night, so instead of returning to the hospital at 1am I just came home to sleep in my very own COMFORTABLE bed. I was going to go back to the hospital this morning, but Ed said it sounded like they'd be coming home so not to bother. Did I mention that I'm excited? They'd doing a few blood tests to check his thyroid, but they'll send the results to his pediatrician. I don't quite know how his thyroid comes into all of this, but whatever. My baby is coming home! So Jess, tell Chris that he doesn't have to come visit me anymore!

My new home...

Is AI duPont. Did you know they have computers here?!? It's only taken me how many years to figure this out? Jess, why didn't you TELL me?!? Henry's been here since Monday afternoon, and I just now found out that there was a computer that I could check (read: delete 1000+) my email. So, since Ed is hanging with the kiddo I figured I'd post a quick update. Can you tell I'm sick of the hospital yet? So, yeah. I'm here, with the Henster. If you want to send him a card, feel free. You just need to know his name and room number (3E-7) I believe :) I'll update all the exciting events when I get home, if I EVER get home.

ETA: I'm never going home. Ever. Well, maybe tomorrow (Friday) evening, but I don't think I'd bet on it. Feel free to send chocolate!

Wish me luck.

Lots of it. Henry had a hearing test yesterday, and it came back that the poor boy can't hear all that well. Boy do I feel like a crappy mom - I figured he heard fine, since he'd turn towards noise and all that. Yeah. Oops. Apparently, he has fluid behind his eardrums, so he hears like you do when you've been on an airplane and your ears haven't popped. Huh. No kidding. So I met with the ENT guy at AI duPont after the hearing test (yes, I LIVE at AI duPont, in case you were wondering), and he came in, asked if Henry's had a lot of ear infections (no), asked if he has a stuffy nose a lot (no), then said "I think you should get tubes put in his ears to drain the fluid. Here's what the surgery entails blah blah blah, here are the risks blah blah blah." Then he left. Oh wait, before he left he handed me a surgery consent form which almost sent me into a panic thinking that this guy thought he was going to operate on my baby NOW lol. If you know me, you know my feelings about doctors and medicine and all that, so I came home and called my cousin. My cousin is a naturopath, so whenever I have a question I call and get her two cents about it. She said it could very possibly be a dairy sensitivity that is causing the fluid buildup, so we've decided we're going to cut out dairy for a month and see if he improves, and if he doesn't we'll seriously consider the tubes.

Yeah. So we're cutting out dairy. Dairy you think - that's not too hard. Just don't drink milk, right??? And we don't drink that much milk, anyways. Yeah. Dairy, in case you didn't know, isn't just milk. It isn't just milk, cheese and yogurt, either. To cut dairy out of your diet, you have to cut out ALL dairy products. Which include, but are not limited to, milk, whey, dried milk solids, lactoalbumin (say WHAT?!?), curds, butter, lactose, potassium caseinate, calcium caseinate, sodium caseinate (seeing a pattern here?), casein, cheese, some margarines, and cream.

Please pray for me!

Legos

So. Legos. Keith has discovered Legos, in more ways than one. A few months ago he was over at his grandparents and, being the good grandparents they are, they unloaded all of Uncle Adam's legos out of the basement for Keith to play with. I wish I had the picture - their dining room was CARPETED in legos. And, of course, being the slightly obsessive child that he is, Keith convinced Grandpa that they had to sort out all of the 1,000,000 legos into the original sets. Fortunately, he inherited that obsessive gene from his grandparents, because they still had all of the original paperwork from all of those sets. I think there were approximately 100,000 sets. So they sorted. And sorted. And sorted. Keith wouldn't come home, because they were having so much fun sorting. Eh, whatever floats the kid's boat. Anyways, all that sorting started a love affair with legos. Now, instead of Cars, every time we're at the store we have to check out the Lego aisle. And Keith keeps his different lego creations out on random surfaces and calls them his 'set ups' and God forbid you move one of his set ups.

He also has the toddler sized legos - I think they're called Duplex? I can't remember - it's been a while since I've looked at them in the store. He plays with those, religiously, too. Usually in his room. So a couple of weeks ago, Duplex legos were strewn all over his room, and he was building things (with his IMAGINATION, mom!) and creating things and not picking up the spare lego parts. Fast forward to that evening. Ed gave Keith a bath, wrapped him up in a towel (arms included - this is important), and sent him off into his room to get dressed. Keith walks into his room, trips on the edge of his rug, and with his arms wrapped up had no way to catch himself. So he landed chin first on.... you guessed it....

A LEGO.

Otherwise known as a damn expensive Lego. I hear all hell breaking loose upstairs and thought that Keith was just throwing a fit about having to get out of the bath. Then I hear Ed yelling "AMY! GET UP HERE!" and I run upstairs to see Keith hysterical and blood pouring out of his chin. So it was off to AI DuPont for stitches. 4 shots of lidocaine and 5 stitches later, Keith was mostly upset about missing his favorite cartoon.



(And can someone explain the 'injured Keith pose'? Every injury picture I have of the boy is the same pose!)