Not what I anticipated in the morning

I woke up this morning to find Cullen looking like Quasimodo with one eye very swollen and red.  He had walked into our bedroom at 6:10am, and Andrew grabbed him and pulled him up on the bed.  Which is pretty usual for us if the kids decided to wake up before our alarms go off.

I eventually made my way into the bathroom when Cullen followed me.  I look in the mirror to find Quasimodo starring back at me with a sort of smile on his face because he was not awake yet.

I grabbed him and sat him up on the counter to get a better look.  The eye was definitely swollen.  He also had a nice pocket of gunk in the corner of his eye and gunk stuck in his eyelashes.  I grabbed my washcloth and started cleaning.  After I finally got all the gunk out, I told Andrew he probably had pink eye.

Andrew, still half asleep, walks into the bathroom to look at Cullen.  He agrees with me about needing to go see the doctor.  After a short discussion, Andrew gets ready so he can be at the doctor's office as soon as they open the walk-in clinic.   I'll be bringing Jackson to preschool and keeping Sawyer.

I love our pediatrician's office.  They have a walk-in clinic every weekday from 8am-10am.  If your kids wakes up sick, you can just bring them in without an appointment first thing.  Of course, it's first come, first serve, but you are guaranteed to be seen.  Awesome, right?!

Andrew ended up being the first one there, and no surprise, Cullen has bacterial conjunctivitis or pink eye.  He now gets eye drops twice a day.  And he is not one of those kids that are easy to put eye drops in his eyes.  I had to sit on him trapping his arms and legs, then peel his Quasimodo eye open amongst much drama.

Unfortunately, Cullen is missing his Easter Egg Hunt at preschool.  I was disappointed, but Jackson will be able to hunt.  Only 24 hours before he's not contagious.  Pray no one else gets it.  We don't need a household of pink eye for Easter.

Odd Convesation

Saturday morning, Andrew and I were standing in the kitchen waiting for breakfast to finish cooking, again.  I had made homemade monkey bread and realized it wasn't fully cooked after I took it out of the oven and flipped it over.  I stuck a toothpick in it to check, and the toothpick came out clean.  Unfortunately, the inner layer was not cooked, so back into the oven it went.

Jackson and Cullen were sitting at the kitchen table grumbling because they were hungry.  The banana and strawberries we had given them apparently had not held their hunger off long enough.

"Mommy, I'm a boy," Jackson said out of nowhere.

"Yes, you are," I said.

"I have a penis," Jackson said rather proudly (I'm telling you it starts at a young age!).

"Yes, you do," I said.

"You have a penis, Mommy," he said.

"No, I don't have a penis," I said.

"Did your penis break off?" Jackson asked with true sincerity and concern in his voice.

"No, my penis did not break off.  I'm a girl.  I don't have a penis," I said while turning my back to him and doing my best not to laugh but not being able to help it.  I couldn't believe this question was just asked.  Andrew was standing next to me trying not to laugh as well.  I gave Andrew 'the look'.  You know the one that says 'Help me out here because this conversation took a turn I wasn't expecting and I want it ended now!'

Andrew quickly took a hint and said, "Mommy is a girl, and girls don't have penises.  Breakfast is almost done, son.  Why don't you get a fork?"

Jackson happily enough jumped down and got a fork out of the drawer.  Conversation ended as abruptly as it began.  Success!

I looked at Andrew and said, "Um, I have no idea where that came from."

Andrew replied, "I almost gave him the Kindergarten Cop definition, but decided against it."

"Probably for the best, but I couldn't get that scene out of my head either!" I said.

Soon after, we sat down happily eating our monkey bread and drinking coffee.  I honestly have no clue why Jackson asked that question.  The whole broken penis was a moment not to forget!

High Tides Ahead

This morning I was feeding Sawyer when I told Jackson to get dressed for preschool.  He always asks if its too warm or too cold.  I headed him off saying, "It's going to be warm today so wear shorts and a short sleeved shirt."  Of course he comes back saying he wants to wear jeans.  I didn't feel it was worth the argument this morning, so I just ok'd it.

After a few minutes and a trip to the potty with Cullen, Jackson walks into the kitchen asking me to button his pants.  Now, I've known he's needed new pants for awhile.  I just haven't had the time to buy him some.

I get a good look at his jeans and notice they are well above his ankle.  He could easily go out into a flood and not get his pants wet.  They are beyond my line of  'I can get away with it' and crossed far into 'I cannot let my child wear this out public.'  We were definitely prepared for the possibility of torrential rains hitting our drought ridden area.

I told him there was no possible way he could wear jeans today.  That went over about as well as a brick in snow.  Especially since I already told him he could wear jeans.  After several minutes of my patience being tested beyond the limit I was willing to tolerate, we finally compromised on his LSU shirt and LSU shorts.  It seems like athletic shorts have become a favorite.

After our high tide debacle, I go back into the kitchen to check on Sawyer to find Cullen with only a shirt on.  Yes, nothing but a shirt and socks.  After chasing him down and wrestling him into clothes, I realized it was only 8:15 in the morning.

It was 8:15am and I was seriously considering this day a loss and just cracking open a drink.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), my conscious kicked in, and I eventually got both older ones off to preschool.

Now, it is my duty to go buy two of my sons appropriate clothes that fit.  At least with Sawyer, I still have plenty of hand-me-downs for him to wear.  It's one of the benefits to having all boys!  And the good thing is, not even holes in clothes stop the boys from wearing them!

Need Water!

The boys and I had just come back from a windy walk and play at the park.  After eating lunch and while I was feeding Sawyer in the living room, Cullen runs up saying, "I drank dogs' water."

Not quite sure what I heard, I answered, "What did you just drink?"

"Dogs' water!" he replied.  Then he ran back into the kitchen.

Needing to know what he was up to, I maneuvered Sawyer into a more comfortable position for walking, and this is what I found.

Cullen bent over literally drinking water from the dogs' water bowl.  Disgusting!

I had picked up their bowl and put it on the window seat in the kitchen, so I could mop when the boys took a nap.  Never had I anticipated one of them would actually drink from it!  I was really not happy at the time.  Since I've had time to reflect on it, I can definitely laugh at the weird stuff that goes on in my house.

Sawyer's Eyes

Andrew and I took Sawyer to a Pediatric Opthamologist today.  Sawyer's been having issues with his eyes since he was born.  Both Andrew and I noticed it almost immediately after we brought him home.  We talked to his pediatrician about it, and he told us to give him until 4 months.  At 4 months old, infants eyes are supposed to be tracking together and in the center.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.

At 4 months, I told his pediatrician I was still seeing eye issues.  He took a look and said he need to see an opthamologist.  Today, we took him.

I'll step back just a moment to say I totally got lost on the way to the eye doctor.  It was at Dell Children's Eye Center.  When I made the appointment, the lady asked if I knew where Dell Children's was and I said yes (been there way too many times already).  I thought I was set.

I get to the Dell Children's Doctor's offices (which is a building next to the hospital) only to find out it wasn't in the building.  Of course, I'm pissed and freaked out at the same time.  I had to look up the phone number on my phone and call the eye center.  The lady at the eye center asked if I had received an automated message on Friday confirming the appointment with directions.  Obviously I had not since I was calling for directions!  She was really sweet, gave me directions, and told me I wasn't too far away.  I'm hauling ass to get to my appointment on time (I had arrived 20 minutes early to the wrong place).  And I had to call Andrew and let him know he was going to the wrong place too.

After finally finding the right doctor's office on the northwest side of town, I arrive about 5 minutes after my scheduled appointment.  Not too bad considering.

Sawyer was seen by the doctor.  He gave him eye drops to dilate his eyes, so he could get a better look inside.  We went back to the waiting room to wait for Sawyer's eyes to dilate.  Sawyer did not like his eyes dilated.  Once they were fully dilated, he was screaming bloody murder in the waiting room.  Andrew and I tried everything to get him to calm down.  Eventually, Andrew just took him outside and was walking him which didn't help.  I made a bottle hoping he would settle down, but every time he opened his eyes again, the crying would start.  The light was hurting him.  And since I needed a pacifier, I forgot it at home.  Typical.

We finally were called back into the office, but Sawyer continued to scream.  I mean you would think he was being murdered scream.  He only settled down after he was put back into his car seat with the visor to give him some shade.  Of course, this was only when we were ready to leave.

According to the opthamologist, both of Sawyer's eyes turn inward at about a 12-15 degree angle.  He's pretty sure it's not effecting his vision since he can track just fine.  It is in both eyes and Sawyer isn't favoring an eye (one's not dominant over the other) right now.  He said at this age Sawyer is in the low to moderate category.  He's hoping Sawyer's body will naturally fix it.  Glasses will not help.

The verdict is we have another appointment in a month to see if Sawyer's eyes are any better.  I just love the sit and wait game.  So much fun! (insert a hefty amount of sarcasm all over)

Andrew had something similar but more serious than this when he was a child.  Since he passed it onto Sawyer, I told him I wanted some sort of refund of marrying a genetically defective husband, he rolled his eyes and laughed at me.  I'm assuming he's not giving me my refund.  I want my refund!  I want my $2.00! (name that movie!)

My Spring Break

This week was spring break for the kids' preschool.  Surprisingly, it hasn't been horrible.

So what have we done this week?  Potty training.

Yes, I took on the task of potty training Cullen this week.  We started on Sunday, not Saturday, since Andrew had been out of town on business.  It has been going fairly well.  Cullen's had accidents, which is normal, but I haven't wanted to beat my head against the wall either.

Either Cullen has been easier or my expectations are so low from my previous experience, it feels easier.  My guess is on the latter.  I had a lot of skepticism going into this. Potty training Jackson was not a walk in the park. It took a long time. By the time it clicked, I was considering leaving him in diapers until grade school. I still have to remind him to stop playing some times. It's not that he doesn't know what to do or what is going on; it's the fact he's too busy or having too much fun to stop and do his business.

Cullen is getting with the program.  I'm thankful he's staying clean and dry during naps and at night.  When Andrew and I decided to do it again, we went straight to underwear just like we did with Jackson.  No point in pull ups if they don't look or feel anything like underwear, even at nap and at night.  So far, he's been pretty good.  His 'dance' for when he goes is pretty funny too.

Potty training, in my mind, is worse than those sleepless nights.  At least with lack of sleep, caffeine helps.  With potty training, I just end up elbow deep in nastiness and doing a lot more laundry.  And being stuck at home when I would have rather taken the kids to the park more often.  That's what an imagination, a back yard, and bikes are for!

Here's to my spring break!  I definitely would rather have gone on vacation.

No Red Wine!

All right, my two oldest are at preschool and Sawyer is rolling around on the floor.  Finally, I found some time to write!

I've been cooking a bunch of new recipes this week.  I just got tired of the same old, same old, so I yanked out my latest Rachel Ray magazine and got to work.  I decided to cook pork chops on Tuesday night.  It was pork chops with mushrooms and thyme. 

I'm getting out all of my ingredients when Andrew walks into the door from work.  I go to get my last ingredient, red wine, and I find out we have no red wine.  Holy hell, Batman!  I went into crisis mode.  My house is out of red wine and white wine.  I just have a bottle of champagne which was supposed to be drunk on Valentine's Day, but we sort of forgot about it.  So, I continue my search, high and low, for an elusive bottle for some reason I'm sure I have around the house.  To no avail, I am out of red wine.

I turn to Andrew and say, "We're out of red wine.  How can we be out of red wine?  Why didn't you tell me we opened the last bottle, so I could put it on my grocery list?  Why didn't you tell me?  We're out of red wine!  I need it for dinner!"  I might have gone a little overboard, but damn it, it was an ingredient I needed a 1/2 cup of to reduce into my sauce!  Andrew looked at me dumb struck for a minute and said, "I'm sorry?  I just thought you knew."

I'm trying to figure out what to do.  I decide to replace the wine with more beef broth, but ha ha, I only have the exact amount of beef broth I need.  I think I might have vehemently cursed the poor box of beef broth.  Andrew finally came up to me and with brilliance said, "Why don't you just use some liquor instead?"

I had my Aha moment!  I ran to the liquor cabinet and grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniel's to replace the red wine.  I reduced my dear ol' friend JD and prepared the rest of dinner.

It was a success!  My pork chops were pretty awesome and quite juicy (to my surprise).  Andrew, Jackson, and Cullen all ate with relish and finished their entire plates.  Yes, awesome mom moment!  And today I picked up some more red wine, so I wouldn't have to go into crisis mode again.

This morning I was feeding Sawyer at the kitchen table while Jackson and Cullen were off playing.  Jackson came up to me to show me (again) his cool turtle shirt from Hawaii.  Sawyer was taking forever to finish his bottle (could have something to do with the fact I had to make him a little bottle at 4am).

All of the sudden the house gets too quiet.  I look at Jackson and said, "Could you be Mommy's helper and go find Cullen?"  Jackson enthusiastically says, "Yes!" then yells, "Cullen! Where are you?!"

I sarcastically tell him, "I could have done that.  Go find where he is."  And he trots off.  About a minute later, I hear arguing from my bedroom with a,"Mom!" followed by screaming.

I go find out what is going on to find Cullen, in my bathroom, with toothpaste smeared all over a cabinet door.  I guess he was trying to finger paint or brush his teeth.  Who knows what goes through that boy's mind some days?!  I was quite pissed to find this because I was already running late.

Commence the clean up of toothpaste on bathroom cabinets, counter, Cullen's hands and shirt.  I love my kids, but it's times like these I wish I could sell them with the house.  Think of it as a two for one deal!  Thank goodness it's Friday!

Family Portrait

Whew!  It's been a busy week.  Nothing too out of the ordinary, but just a lot of stuff going on at once.  I haven't been able to write or complete a thought in awhile.  So I leave you with  Jackson's Family Portrait.  He drew it at preschool.  Yes, we are number 1!