Tuesday, February 28, 2012

My Kids Can't Take Me Anywhere

I was feeling adventurous today after I picked Korban up from school, so I decided to run some errands with the kids. My kids were actually well behaved, but I had a Day. First I decided to go into Goodwill, just for fun.  (I love that place!)  When we pulled in, Korban pointed at their sign and said "The letter O!"  We've been working on letters/words, so I was very proud of him. I told him what a good job he did, and then asked him what the other letters were.  "Don't ask me!" he responded.  Ha!  I'm pretty sure he has no idea how funny he is.  I love it. So we poked around the store for a while, and I found a book I wanted to read and a couple of other small items, so we went on to check out.  The cashier was really friendly and sweet.  She complimented my kids, and asked Selah's name.  I told her, and she said she liked it.  She told me that if she ever has a little girl, she plans on naming her Luna.  "Oh, like in Harry Potter!" I said, immediately thinking of Luna Lovegood.  "Um, no.  As in, like, the moon," she said, looking at me strangely.  Oops.  Sometimes I forget not everybody is as big of nerd as I am!  Books are always in my head, and I tend to spout out weird facts at inopportune times. (Maybe it's those autistic traits that I'm sure I have!)  My husband would testify to this.  I drive him nuts sometimes, but only with certain things.  Harry Potter he liked, Twilight not nearly so much.  When he was driving home from Chattanooga this past weekend, the kids were wild, and I was doing animal flash cards with them to calm them down so they wouldn't distract him as he drove.  I held up a grizzly bear flash card and idly remarked "Grizzly bears are Emmett's favorite."  "Huh?  Emmett who?" Brad asked.  "Emmett Cullen.  Edward's brother," I said, like he should already know.  I seriously thought he was going to put me out and make me walk home.  But I disgress...Back to this afternoon.  Next we headed to Dollar Tree.  Did you know they have their own brand of Swiffer pads?  I didn't either until I saw their sales paper, but they do.  Eight pads compatible with the Swiffer mop for a buck.  I haven't used my Swiffer mop in forever, partly because I like my steam mop better and partly because I didn't want to keep spending all that money on replacement pads.  So I went to get some of those to see if I liked them.  The kids did well in the store, and so did I until we got back to the parking lot.  I am always nervous because both my kids are bolters and I'm so afraid they will get away from me.  I am even more nervous when I'm by myself because they have me outnumbered and I can't turn loose of them for a second.  So I opened the door, tossed my purse and keys into the driver's seat and then strapped my kids into their carseats right away.  Then I went to get in and discovered that my keys were nowhere to be found.  I vaguely remembered hearing a small clunking sound when I tossed the keys in, so I figured they fell into the floor.  So I spend a considerable amount of time with my head between the seats of my van and my rear end stuck up in the air, probably much to the dismay of the elderly couple parked next to me.  The keys were still hiding.  I righted myself and debated on calling my husband to tell him that I couldn't get home because I had lost my keys but were sure they were somewhere in the van.  Decided against that and prayed instead. Looked inside the part that my seat belt comes out of, and sure enough, I could see something shiny.  I had to lift up the driver's seat with one hand while shoving the other hand into that small area to wedge the keys out.  It took some maneuvering but I finally got it.  And right after that, a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a while pulled up next to me, so if I hadn't have spent so much time digging around for my keys, I wouldn't have seen her.  So it all worked out!  I really needed some shredded cheese, and by that point I wasn't willing to go into Wal-Mart, so I drove to a small local grocery store that I thought I could get in and out of quickly.  When we went in, I noticed they had strawberries on sale.  Korban just finished off a pint of strawberries yesterday, so I bought two more. While I was doing that,  Korban noticed that they had watermelon, already cut into wedges and wrapped tightly with clear wrap.  It looked really good.  They even had a spork wrapped in with it!  Very convenient.  "Get you watermelon?"  he asked hopefully.  I went to check them them out.  "Pop brought us watermelon," he told me.  Now how do you say no to that?  Of course I bought him the watermelon.  Then I grabbed a couple bags of cheese and we checked out.  As we were leaving the store, I noticed a young man who worked there was following me.  I didn't think much of it, but he followed me out the door.  As I crossed the parking lot, he stayed several steps behind me.  I wasn't scared at all, but I did find his behavior curious.  I tossed several furtive glances over my shoulder, and he was staying with me.  I was shocked when I got to the van and he stopped behind me.  So I turned around to look at him and he was holding my groceries!  (Duh!)  I really thought they had put them in my buggy, but the only thing my buggy was full of was my children.  I'm not used to that kind of service.  I will definitely shop there again.  If they let me...I may have freaked out that poor bag boy.  ;)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Melissa Needs An Entourage

Today's Korban's school called and said he had thrown up in his classroom.  So I went to pick him up.  I called his dr's office on the way to make him an appointment.  He had only thrown up the one time, but he was acting really out of sorts.  I was worried because the flu has hit our area pretty hard, and most cases seem to be starting out with upset stomachs.  I picked him up and we went straight to the dr's.  Now let me mention that I used to always try to find some sort of help, like asking my mom to go with me or to keep whichever child wasn't sick in situations like this.  But I've tried to cut that out.  I don't want to be dependent on others and then freak out if they aren't able to help me.  So even though Selah wasn't sick I didn't ask for any help and just showed up at the dr with one possibly sick child and one non-sick child.  We didn't have to wait in the waiting room long, which was awesome, and the dr came in our room right away.  She looked in Korban's ears and throat and listened to him.  His throat was a little red, but nothing major.  (I'm beginning to think red is his throat's normal color.)  He had perked up some since we were at the dr's--he really loves her--but we decided to do some tests just to make sure.  It's hard to know with Korban, because he doesn't really tell us how he feels, and also with the immune stuff you can't be too careful.  So she decided to do a strep test, flu and RSV, and to check his blood count.  He is very strong, and usually fights any procedure like that, painful or not.  We did strep first, and he fought some, but no big deal.  Flu and RSV were next, and they are both nasal swabs.  The nurse got them really fast, but then his nose started bleeding.  He is very easy to get nosebleeds, and the combination of crying and the swab put him over the top.  So his nose was dripping blood and the nurse ran to grab me a towel.  I was wiping his face and he was crying and crying.  The blood freaks him out.  The more he screamed, the more his nose bled, and the more his nose bled, the more he screamed.  Do you see what a vicious cycle this was?  So I was trying to calm him down and wipe blood and not being terribly successful at either one.  In the meantime, Selah had climbed up on the dr's stool and stood up to get a better view of the whole spectacle.  Thankfully, the dr's husband came along, saw my predicament and held and played with Selah while I tried to calm Korban down. (He actually helped throughout the rest of the ordeal and this was the ONLY thing that kept Selah from climbing up on something to see if she could fall off of it or sticking her finger in an electrical outlet.)  Just when I thought the blood might be slowing down a little, Korban peed everywhere.  So then we had enough blood to look like a crime scene AND a giant pee puddle.  *sigh*  The receptionist walked out to my car for me and got Korban a change of clothes.  While she was doing that, his nosebleed stopped and we were able to do the fingerstick real fast.  He did okay with that, except he screamed for his daddy the whole time.  Or that might've been me screaming for Brad, my memory is fuzzy.  They also moved us next door to a clean room and the nurse was very gracious and cleaned up our first room.  (Which totally looked like it needed a combination team from CSI and HazMat.)  Thankfully, Korban was negative for flu, RSV, and strep and his white blood count was perfect.  Didn't even look viral.  She said he could possibly have a stomach virus, just to keep an eye on him.  But he hasn't thrown up anymore, or had any other symptoms, so I'm wondering if he was just nervous/excited because they had their Valentine party at school today?  I wouldn't really think so, but he threw up during children's church a couple of weeks ago, the first time he went without one of us...So I'm wondering if nervous puking is a new phenomenon he is adding to his roster of Very Weird Things To Do To Freak Parents Out.  Hmmm...We see the child development pediatrician next week so I guess I need to get her opinion on it.  Since there doesn't seem to be any underlying physical cause at this point.  I guess time will tell.  But I'm praying this passes quickly.  Because I think we've all seen about all the bodily fluids we care to see for one day.  After the appointment was over with, the dr even helped me out to the car.  Because at this point I had two kids, my purse, Selah's diaper bag, Korban's backpack (which came in full of clean clothes andleft full of pee clothes) and a stuffed monkey.  And I'm not even sure how all that happened.  Oh, and Korban had thrown up on the sweatshirt he was wearing, so he had no coat, wouldn't wear my coat, and refused to let us wrap him in a blanket. And I was covered in dried blood and also pee from where I had held him before I changed his clothes.  This brings to mind a story my family always teased me about.  Apparently when I was really little, I peed all over my dad while he was holding me at a dr's visit.  If Daddy were here now, we would've had a big laugh about how I got my payback and then some!

 After we left there, I went to happy hour and bought myself a stiff drink and some juice for the kiddos.  Just so you know, Happy Hour was at Sonic and a "stiff drink" in my book constitutes a Rt. 44 Coke.  What did you think I meant?  ;)


Did I mention we go to church with his dr and pretty much all of her staff and that they are saints all the time and not just when I'm drowning like I was today?  They are awesome.  Korban's insurance changed a year ago and we lost the dr he had seen since he was a baby because that office wasn't able to take his new insurance.  I was very upset about that because we all love her so much, but God has helped us through the transition, and this story is a testament to that fact!

But we are basically a walking disaster and I think I need an entourage to accompany me everywhere I go.  Any volunteers?  Squeamish and/or the faint of heart need not apply.  Or maybe I just need a pit crew.  They might be more efficient and faster at cleanup...Happy Valentine's Day ya'll!  (And don't worry--this didn't ruin our Valentine's Day.  We didn't have any plans, and we are hoping to watch a movie and chill out after the kids are snug in their beds.  We do have fun family plans for next weekend, so please pray that all puking/screaming/bleeding etc. disappears from the Essary household by then!