I've Got Some Serious Thrill Issues, Dude

I got a call from the pediatrician's office today, reminding me of Grace's 15-month-well-check tomorrow, and Adam's booster shots. At the same time. By myself (Mike's working). I laughed when the receptionist told me, and this line from Finding Nemo came to mind.

My kids do not do well with immunizations. To be fair, I worked at a pediatrician's office for two years, and most kids don't. But, my kids are a little more difficult. Grace literally gets a panic attack each time. The poor thing screams and then gasps for breath. Doctor's freak out, thinking she's had an allergic reaction. Nope... she's just a princess (she does this whenever she's in a lot of pain). Adam has already threatened to kick the doctor. When he got his 4-year-well check, they had to have 2 nurses (plus Mike) hold him down. It doesn't matter how many books we've read about doctor's or how any times we have sang "Just Say Owe and It's Over" he still hates them.

I must have serious thrill issues. I mean, why else would I have thought, "Hmmm... scheduling both appointments at once while Mike's working is a great idea! I need excitement in my dull life, and holding a panicked-non-breathing one-year-old on my hip, while holding down a screaming 4-year-old is exactly what I need!"

At least tomorrow won't be boring. :)

Not Yet!

Grace threw her first official tantrum yesterday. Since the accident, I have tried to be more careful about watching her on the chairs. She is SUCH a climber, and it's proving really hard to keep her on the ground. She has been climbing out of her high chair for months, so we put her in a booster seat, and it's STILL a struggle to get her to sit. This is probably why she's so stinkin' skinny. She'd rather climb during meals than eat.

Anyway, she was trying to climb out again, and I was trying to hold her with one hand to keep her seated, and feed her with the other hand. She stopped struggling, sat there, and for a second (a brief second, albeit), I thought that I had won. So naive. Then she started SCREAMING, rocking back-and-forth and banging her head against the back of the chair. I thought she has caught her leg or something, so I took her out. The crying immediately stopped. Put her back in. Another tantrum. Goodness! Is it possible for the Terrible Two's to start at 15 months? Yikes! It seems that my oh-so-easy Grace days are over. She has seriously been a dream. Besides the weight-gain issues, that is. She's happy. She goes down for naps and bed very easily. She slept through through the night at 2 months. She's been a wonderful baby. But if these tantrums are any indication of the future... fantastic. :)

Thanksgiving, the ER, and Yet ANOTHER Adam Funny

We had a mah-velous Thanksgiving! We got to celebrate it twice (lucky us!). Once with the DI crew and the other, just our little family. We had a blast with everyone at DI. And our Thanksgiving was pretty fun, too. I had really mixed emotions about the day. I kinda fluctuated from smiling "It's nice to have a calm, homey Thanksgiving" to blubbering "This is my first Thanksgiving away from family." But, all-in-all it was a good day. We each chose our favorite side (my mom's cranberry salad, my Nano's stuffing, sweet potatoes, and crab puffs sans crab-this is Adam's, not sure why he chose it... lol).

The next day I headed out at 4:00am to do the Black Friday thang. I got Grace a baby at Wal-Mart (she's ALL about the babies these days) and Adam a remote control car (he's wanted one forever). And I'm done with shopping. Yay! We decided to just get them one toy each this year from Santa, plus a pair of pajamas (Wal-Mart for $5 yay) and a box of cereal from us. They get SO many toys from everyone else, so we try not to overwhelm them. We decided to celebrate Christmas on the 22nd this year. We've been doing this the past few years. I know that other people who live out of town from family, somehow load up their Santa gifts without their kids knowing and celebrate out of town, but I can't figure it out. And I know it's really weird, and who knows how long we will be able to keep it up, but I seriously love it. I love that we get our "own" Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We get to enjoy being with each other and talk about the reason we celebrate Christmas and play with the toys and have fun. It's great. I LOVE being with our family in Phoenix, but I'm afraid if we celebrated it there, it would turn into one big gift-opening frenzy. So, we do it this way, and though it's unorthodox, it works for us.

We had SO much fun spending 4 whole days with Mike! The kids were ecstatic! However, what weekend would be complete without a trip to the ER? Grace fell off a chair and bit a hole in her mouth the size of a dime, so I took her in. Lovely. :)

And... last thing for this HUGE blog (I'm quite the talker tonight), another Adam funny. He seriously cracks me up. We were cuddling on the couch Sunday night, and I told him, "I heart you, Adam" He turned around and looked confused. "You hurt me, Mom?" "No, no, I heart you, you know like heart, love, I love you." Pause. "So, you love to hurt me?"

Poor kid.

He's Doing WHAT to My Joint?

A few months ago, I noticed a lump in front of my ear. It was slightly painful. I also started having some ear pain, too. I really didn't think it was a big deal, so I put off going to the doctor. Then, being the paranoid person that I am, I looked it up on the Internet. Which made me start freaking out that I had a tumor or something, so last Friday, I headed to the doctor.

Upon telling me it wasn't a tumor (yay!), she asked if I gritted my teeth much. Ummm... only every single day since Adam turned 4. Well, apparently this has caused my TMJ to begin popping out of place. Wonderful. She told me to stop doing it, or I was going to cause serious damage to my joint.

I love Adam to death. He is sweet, imaginative, hilarious, and a great kid. However, turning 4 has made him (at times) have a terrible case of the Forgettable Fours. He whines. He tells lies (though I know they aren't really lies). He has such an attitude (wonder where he got THAT from :) ). Most of the time he's great, but about once a day, he does something really, really awful, and I grit my teeth so I don't blow up or tie him up or something.

But... sheesh... now that I know my way of not killing my son is ruining my jaw, what am I supposed to do now? Count to 10 or something healthy like that? :) I considered telling him that if he doesn't shape up, he's going to owe me money for jaw surgery and plastic surgery (to rid myself of the stretch marks he brought during pregnancy), but, that's not something I exactly want him bringing up in Primary. And he would. :)

Super Fun Enrichment and Cute Adam

Last night we had Enrichment Night in our ward. I have NEVER had so much fun before at an Enrichment. We had a really, really good dinner. Everyone brought their favorite holiday appetizers, sides, or dessert. It was SO yummy! I have been absolutely craving Spinach-Artichoke Dip for FOREVER (not sure why) and someone brought it last night! Yay!

After dinner, we had a service auction. I have heard about people doing these in Enrichment before, but had never been to one. Everyone donated a service to perform for someone else, and we bid on them. We received bidding money by filling out a worksheet that had things like, "If you went to church on Sunday 5 points," etc. The list included year supply, temple attendance, random acts of kindness, and making a new meal for your family.

The auctioneer was this completely cute sister in our ward, named Rochelle. She is normally very funny, but last night she was just hilarious. We were all literally crying from laughing SO hard! I donated an FHE book with 10 lessons based on President Hinckley's "Standing for Something" book. I'm sure a lot of you have seen it before. It's cute. I'm just waiting for the rest of the materials to arrive from Salt Lake in order to finish it.

I really, really, wanted to win the "Eye Brow Wax", "Cut and Highlight" or the "28-page Scrapbook", but I didn't have enough money (darn year supply! :) ). BUT, I ended up winning 3 totally fun things that I am SUPER excited about: a gingerbread house, frosting, and candy (to decorate with the family); 20 homemade Christmas cards; and 2 of these really cute crayon holders. Yay! Adam and Grace had fun in the nursery, and I had SO much fun meeting some new people and laughing. I haven't laughed like that in SOOOOO long! Wow!

Adam also had a really good day yesterday. He got a letter in the mail with a dollar in it, had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, went to nursery and played with his friends, and won a gingerbread house. Last night as I was tucking him into bed (late, Enrichment ran WAY over until 9:00!), he told me, "This has been the absolute, BEST day of my life. Wow!" LOL. So cute! Little kids aren't hard to please, are they? :)

Halloween Pictures and Adam's Christmas Present

We had a very, very fun Halloween. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. Grace is SO scared of Halloween, that I figured we were going to have to cut the festivities short and go home, but she did A LOT better than I thought!

The kids dressed up like a Super Hero Bat (Adam) and a Lady Bug (Grace). We went to a puppet show at the library that morning. It was really cute. I love our librarians. They do SO much for the kids. After that, Mike and the kids waited in the car while I had my appointment (fun, fun). We made dinner-in-a-pumpkin for dinner that night, and went to our ward's Halloween party. Grace was so cute, every time someone gave her a piece of candy, she reached in her bucket and handed them one. So adorable. She is just THE sweetest thing. After the party, we hit a few streets, because Adam was loving the candy, and simply didn't want to stop. We all had a lot of fun.

I absolutely LOVE Halloween. It's my favorite holiday. I know this sounds corny, but my favorite thing about it is, trick-or-treating. I love that once a year, everyone opens their doors, and gives candy to the kids. Communities get together and have parties. For one night, it seems like there is a whole sense of giving and love. I know that's SO strange, but I love it. It makes me feel kinda nostalgic, I guess.

Adam got a bunch of candy, which he unfortunately couldn't eat. BECAUSE... he had to go to the dentist in the morning and get 2 root canals. Can you believe it? I know I wasn't the best mom about not putting him to bed with a bottle when he was a baby and wiping his gums with a cloth, but I swear, as soon as he got teeth, that stopped. I brushed his teeth vigilantly, and he hardly ever gets soda or juice. But, his teeth are horrid. He did really well, though. And since he couldn't eat his candy, it meant that I got first dibs on the chocolate. :) I call it the "Mommy Tax." Once a year, he pays me for ALL that I do for him and provide for him... in chocolate. :) Just kidding (kinda-I did take a few Milky Ways). But, since his root canal cost us $300, I told him that it was his Christmas present... for the next 10 years. Luckily, he was still groggy when I told him that and doesn't remember, because it really wasn't a nice thing to say. And his teeth aren't his fault. Oh, well. Someday we will be out of debt. :)

Happy Day!

Happy news today. Yay!

So, my appointment went great. The doctor told me that there is a less than 1% chance of the tumor coming back and turning cancerous. There's a good chance it will spread, but normally that happens in 5-10 years, and it's very, very rarely cancerous. The appointment was made even more awkward by the fact that the oncologist is a teaching doctor, so there were several students at the appointment, too. Oh, well. After you have kids, what's the point in being embarrassed anymore, right? :)

And my awesome sister-in-law Amanda brought me some clothes for my kids, from her daughter and my other sister-in-law's sons this past weekend. So, Grace has a bunch of really adorable clothes and a pair of shoes, and Adam has some really "awesome" (I'm not allowed to call his things 'cute') clothes as well. Thanks Amanda and Shoni! We love them!

Well, I'm going to have to post later today about Halloween, because Grace is up from her nap. So... that means my break's over. :) Have a happy day everyone!