Happy Birthday, Taco!

Last week was a nightmare, thank you for being patient with me while I convinced my kids to keep you updated. It wasn't bad in a horrible way, like no one was in the hospital or in jail although if Prima Donna doesn't get her ticket paid, she might be soon...


It was just the little stuff like when Sport ordered an on-line copy of Minecraft over the internet using my credit card and they sent him the Java version! Does anybody game with Java anymore? But now, see, because I was the nice guy, it becomes MY problem and I have to deal with trying to get the money refunded.

Not everything was bad though. I got my poster hanging project finished on Friday. I pretty much visited every school in our district except for four and the specialty schools. I figure it took me about 10 hours and a couple of tanks of gas, so my volunteer responsibilities for the Nutcracker are very well fulfilled.

Except that I have a certain tutu for a Snow Queen upstairs that I am altering...

We had a birthday party for Taco on Saturday at my church (because I have keys and that made it easier). I love that we can use our church buildings for parties and showers and weddings and stuff. They might not be ideal, but the are functional and free. Just one more reason to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 😉

Then we had a family party on Sunday as well. Taco is 14 now, can you believe it?

Moments in the NICU: I Scream by Bossy

I was discharged from the hospital after 72 hours, but they allowed me to continue to stay in a room at no cost until Skittles was discharged.   We had originally planned on another 5 days, so Gamer brought me down enough food for a week to store in the community parent fridge and then he and Taco left for Arizona at the end of week 1 in the NICU.  

Gamer was nervous about leaving me alone (and without a car) with my mom out of town.  Fortunately I had several siblings around who could come check on me and Burrito’s best friend, Blake’s dad agreed to a week-long sleepover. Both boys had stayed with Blake while I was in labor and Gamer stayed at the hospital and Burrito had countless sleepovers during the previous weeks.  To be honest he has spent most of the summer at his friend’s house, Gamer started calling Blake’s dad Burrito's “Second Dad.” These are truly great neighbors who love my boy. 

If you can imagine after nearly 2 full weeks with Blake, Burrito was ready for a break. I guess I should explain, Blake is actually 3 years younger than Burrito. He started out being Salsa’s best friend.  He had a lot in common with Salsa and they were emotionally the same age.  Blake kept coming over looking for Salsa after DCFS moved the boys.  Last summer I forced Burrito into being nice to Blake and it slowly developed into a great friendship.  But sometimes the age difference can be trying for Burrito and late Sunday night he called and asked if I could arrange for him to come see his brother at the hospital.  

Drama Queen doesn’t work Mondays and we quickly made arrangements for her and Burrito to come visit that Monday.  Drama Queen had plans to bring me lunch, but the nurses had been pushing for me to get out of the hospital (I hadn’t been outside in over a week) and get some fresh air.  They encouraged me to try the bistro across the street and ice cream at Hatch’s next door for dessert. 

Drama Queen agreed fresh air would be good for me.  Skittles had gone back on the bilirubin lights that morning.  We had spent Sunday snuggling all day long, so Skittles was very disappointed with having his “sun glasses” covering his eyes and not being held.  He cried for so long when I wouldn’t pick him back up after our early morning feeding that I had to leave the room to shower and cry.  I let Burrito have my hour of lunchtime snuggle time and Skittles quickly fell asleep in his brother’s arms. Once our time was up and he had to go back under the lights, we heading down for an adventure to the bistro and Hatch’s Chocolates.  

When we arrived, we saw the bistro was closed on Mondays.  We all agreed to enjoy dessert first and then head over for food at the hospital cafeteria.  After sampling nearly every homemade flavor we picked our favorites.  Burrito got a double scoop waffle cone with oreo and cherry chocolate chip.  For the last 48 hours all I wanted was a banana so I eagerly ordered a banana split.  Drama Queen indulged in the brownie sundae.  If we had any idea how large, rich and decadent the sundae and banana split would be, we would have shared. 

I topped Burrito's cone off with one of my piles of fresh whipped cream. He easily finished off his waffle cone.  I enjoyed ½ of my banana split before offering the rest to Burrito.  Drama Queen offered up a few bites of her dessert.  Let me just say that a brownie made from scratch with homemade real chocolate instead of cocoa powder is a complete different experience.  The brownie sundae was delicious, but so rich she could have shared with 4 people and still felt satisfied.  Burrito polished off my banana spilt and waited like a lion stalking his prey for Drama Queen offer her brownie sundae.

Drama Queen rewarded him with the last quarter of her brownie.  Burrito dug in and immediately the rich brownie was making him full.  He asked if he could finish while walking back to the hospital.  We returned to the hospital and eventually located the cafeteria, Burrito was uncomfortably full of ice cream but not enough to turn down a chance to order a corn dog and fries.  Drama Queen and I ordered a French dip sub to share, but the cook was confused and prepared 2 sandwiches.  We all tried to eat real food after our indulgent dessert, Drama Queen started worrying Burrito was going to throw up in mom’s Lexus on the drive home.  Burrito insisted he was fine and snarfed dog the hotdog and fries.

It had been nearly 2 hours and they needed to get home to work on the painting project. Burrito had left his phone in my room to charge.  We went up to get it while Drama Queen got the car out of the lot.  The elevator ride up made Burrito queasy.  Now I was worried about vomit in Mom’s car.  His tummy hurt more and more with each passing step.  We retrieved the phone and I detoured to the Labor and Delivery nurses station to ask for a barf bag, just in case.  The nurses gave him a hard time for his rookie mistake of overindulgence at Hatch’s Chocolates.  On the main floor Burrito decided to use the bathroom before the drive home.  Drama Queen was waiting in the drop off zone and very relieved to see the barf bag. And there were no incidents on the way home.

Are You as Busy as I Am?

This week has been absolutely exhausting!

Today was no different. I got up early after going to bed late. I helped get the kids off, took a shower and set off to run the same errands I've been running all week.... hanging posters in the schools for our Nutcracker coming up.

I had 11 posters left to do from a stack of 40 extras, but I only hung 5 even though I visited about 10 schools in my 2 hours out and about. I also dropped some papers at the middle school and Grandpa's shirts at the cleaners. It was 10:58 when I pulled in for my 11:00 drop dead time, but Twiz was already here with Twizlet.

After getting her some pears and cottage cheese, I took 10 minutes to breathe, and then I headed for the craft room. I had 6 blankets that had to be embroidered, clipped, and bags stuffed for our cute cheerleaders before the 6:00 football banquet for Curly.

It was slow going, but got even slower when Skittles showed up about 12:30. He was not having a good day, and even holding him nonstop didn't make a difference, but it did matter to my embroidery machine... I finally put him down and made a little progress. This pattern required 5 thread changes and lots of clipping.

At 3:15, Bossy showed up and then we were able to get things moving. She was joined by Drama Queen so they could clip for me and help stuff the bags. At 5:50, I sent my sweetie and Curly out the door without me. I still had one blanket to go. Drama Queen was still helping me every step of the way.

At 7:15, I finally pulled out of the driveway. Six darling bags were in a larger one and ready to be delivered. The kids loved them and since things were so crazy, there aren't any pics, but after I get the one done for Baby Doll tomorrow, I'm put it up for you.

Someone said, "You're amazing!"
I said, "No, if I were, I wouldn't have been over an hour late."

Happy Friday! Hopefully it will be just a bit easier...

Tadpole's First Haircut

Today was a special day. Princess had something to do in town so she drove the hour up here and I got to babysit Tadpole for the first time. At family parties, he hasn't been all that excited to see me, but today he was perfectly content to play with toys and read books until his mama got back.

Two of my favorite guys

Princess was meeting Drama Queen after work to go to Ikea and needed to kill an hour, so I offered to help give Tadpole his first haircut. After getting the go-ahead from daddy, we proceeded to take some pics and then he sat nervously on my lap while Princess made the first couple of cuts.

A little nervous

Just finish already!

So traumatic!

Then we moved Tadpole to her lap and I finished him up. He looked cute as ever! Then I offered to cut Princess's hair and she was thrilled for a trim. It turned out to be a little more than that, but she was very pleased with the results. (It seems I'm not the only one with breakage during pregnancy...)


I loved spending the afternoon with my sweet daughter. She is such a good mom and I'm so proud of her. Tomorrow is the big gender reveal! So much excitement!

All done!