7 Quick Takes Friday: Sick Babies, Sick Mom, Potty Tales, and Bad Purchases

~1~

Guess who is 4 months old!

~2~

Easter Sunday we got up early and went to the 7:30 Mass. We then had a leisurely breakfast before heading out to my in-laws place for the afternoon. It's important to note here that Peter had a fever briefly on Saturday. But he was fine the rest of the day. So Sunday we checked him and he seemed fine, so we continued on with our plans. Of course, we get ready to sit down for dinner at my in-laws house and he starts acting fussy and complaining. He felt really hot and I ended up sitting with him in another room for a good part of the meal. He was not interested in eating.

I felt bad for bringing a sick kid into a house with a bunch of other people, including other small kids. Yes, I was that inconsiderate parent who brought a sick kid to someone else's house. Oh, how I hate to be that person!! In my defense, he was fine all morning. And later that day, after dinner, he seemed fine again and was playing with his brother. He still wouldn't eat anything, though.

~3~

I decided on Sunday night that Peter needed to stay home on Monday. Although he perked up later on Sunday, he seemed out of sorts again by the time we got home that night. So he and I stayed home (and Silas too). His fever was pretty mild throughout the day, he was mostly in good spirits, and he was eating again.

I was another story. My nose started running like a fountain and I spent the day sneezing, blowing my nose, and dealing with watery eyes. Seasonal allergies? A sinus infection? I have no idea. Monday was a rough day for me!!

~4~

So we spent a good part of Monday watching PBS. The boys don't get to watch the kid shows on PBS very often. They are usually at school during the week and our local PBS channel doesn't air these cartoons on the weekends. So it's rare. Even so, they know a couple of the shows and often ask for them. So Monday night we were finishing up dinner and Ethan was still at the table. He started asking me if we could watch "Dinosaur Train." I had to explain that it wasn't on now so we couldn't watch it. I should have stopped there. [What is wrong with me?] I then told him that Peter and I watched it earlier in the day because Peter was home sick. Suddenly, Ethan gave me this very sad face, leaned his head to one side, and started whining, "sick, sick." I about died laughing! No child, you're not sick. I guess he'll do anything just to watch "Dinosaur Train."

~5~

Tuesday morning Silas had his 4 month well visit. He did well and even showed off his new rolling over talent for the doctor. Oh yeah, he's rolling over now! Forgot to mention that. He is becoming a big boy! He's actually in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. That's a big number for my kids! He also had his shots. He did well at first. I kept him home afterwards though. I still wasn't feeling great and I figured he might do better being with me the rest of the day. He mostly did well, seemed a little out of sorts later in the day and had a mild fever. Wednesday we started the day going back to normal schedules. Didn't last long though. Poor baby got another fever and didn't want to eat, so I went and picked him up from school, drove out to Hubby's work place to switch cars with him, and spent the rest of the day home with the baby. The fever didn't last much longer. He actually seemed in good spirits when I picked him up, but he did take a nice long nap once we got home. He was back to his chipper self by that evening.

~6~

Big news!!! BIG NEWS!! We have not started potty training the boys yet, but we have started talking about it a lot. A LOT! Well, over the weekend, Ethan accidentally had a poop in the bath tub. It totally freaked him out. So then Wednesday night, Hubby gave them a bath and while drying Peter off Ethan starts acting like he needs to go. We think he thought that he was going to poop again. So Hubby took him out of the tub and stuck him on the potty seat. Low and behold the boy peed! He went in the potty!!

This is HUGE!! The boys like to sit on the little potty seats, fully clothed, to brush their teeth. But whenever we encouraged them to sit on the seat without a diaper on, they would freak out. Hubby got them to sit there once by bribing them with M&Ms. They didn't do anything then, but they at least sat on the potty diaper-less. I was so excited when Hubby and Ethan came downstairs the other night to tell me that he had used the potty! It's a step in the right direction!

~7~

I decided some time ago to hang a magnetic dry erase board up in our kitchen. I needed a place to hang up things from the day care and other important bits of info (refrigerator is stainless steel). Plus I figured a dry erase board gave me the option to write things up there temporarily as well. So I found one I liked, bought it, got some cute little magnets to go with it, and ordered some small dry erase markers with magnets on them. Hubby hung up the board for me a couple night ago. I was so excited to get a tiny bit more organized. I pulled out the magnets and they didn't stick. I was so confused. Turns out I bought a dry erase board only. Not magnetic. I was so disappointed. So now I need to find a new one to hang in the same spot. What a pain! But ... to find the positive spin ... I know where I want to hang the dry erase board. It'll still be used, no worries there.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!! I think we're all healthy again and planning a weekend of cleaning and building a garden bed. Go read more 7 Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary.

Jesus, I Trust in You

In a very last minute situation on Wednesday (i.e., yesterday) I agreed to fill an empty spot on the Catholic Sistas calendar for Thursday (i.e., TODAY). In a matter of only 3 hours I wrote a whole post and got pictures edited and inserted without any previous plans.

So how did it turn out? Well, I think the Holy Spirit had His hand in this one for sure. I've never worked on something like this is such a short period of time. Here's a brief excerpt:

Jesus, I trust in You.

It is a short prayer, but one that is incredibly powerful. It evokes complete surrender to Jesus. A trust like no other. It would be hard to even utter these words if you had any doubts about trusting Jesus. Whenever I profess these words I feel a peace and a lightness in my soul. I trust Jesus and I know he’s “got this.”

Jesus, I trust in You.

Whatever my prayer is, I surrender to His will with these few words. Maybe the desires on my heart are not the plans God has for me. Maybe my prayers won’t be answered as I think they should be. Maybe they will. But I can accept God’s will, whatever it is, when I put complete trust in Him.

Read the rest at Catholic Sistas here: The Divine Mercy: Jesus, I Trust in You.

The Joy of the Crucifix on Catholic Sistas

A few weeks ago I realized that my April post for Catholic Sistas was going to fall on Good Friday. I debated doing a reflective post on the importance of the day or keeping it simple with a short prayer and some art work of the Crucifixion.

Then I decided that I wanted to write a post on the importance of the crucifix for Catholics. While some Protestant denominations do use the crucifix in their churches, a large portion of them do not. The crucifix seems to be much more common in Catholic Churches (both Western and Eastern, though I learned there are some differences). I was very interested in this topic and was fascinated by some of what I was reading. But, formulating something still wasn't coming to me.

I sat down to write, because I couldn't put it off any longer (pesky deadlines), still thinking I was going to write something about the crucifix and why it is so commonly used by Catholics, and instead this story came out.

We turned off the windy country road onto a gravel drive. As we started up the hill I looked around at my surroundings. I would be spending the next three days at this retreat center. The driver was telling us about the old retreat center across the road. But I had stopped listening as I noticed a large crucifix at the top of the hill ahead of us.

This was my first impression of the retreat center. As we ascended the hill, the life-size crucifix dominated the view in front of us. Only once we turned the corner did I notice the retreat center and the other people arriving.

It always amazes me how the Holy Spirit works. Apparently this is the story I was meant to tell today. Read the rest of it here: The Joy of the Crucifix.

7 Quick Takes Friday: Traveling, Cribs, Chocolate Diving, and Wow, I'm old!

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I started this 7 Quick Takes post on Thursday. Thought I'd get a head start and have it all ready to go by Friday morning. I finished it and went to bed and then kept thinking about it. The general feel of the whole post was coming off to me as kind of depressing. I have a lot of good things going on in my life and yet somehow my post was coming off as kind of drab. So I'm scrapping the whole thing and starting again. So there's Take #1 for you. (Probably not much better than the original ... moving on ...)

~2~

Last weekend we were in Atlanta to celebrate my brother's marriage with family and friends. It was wonderful to visit with so many people that we don't get to see very often. I wish I could have visited with them more, but herding three children around everywhere made that difficult. It was fun though!! The boys had a great time and continued to talk about Nanny and Papa (my parents) for several more days after we got home.

~3~

Our trip wrapped up with a very long drive home. Loooooooong! Because of an accident on the highway (pray for those involved) we ended up sitting in traffic for about 2 hours. I think we went about 20 miles over those two hours. I convinced Hubby to stop for dinner shortly after we started moving again. It was just a long time for the boys to be strapped in their car seats and I was sure diapers desperately needed to be changed. So yes, 30 miles from our exit, we stopped for dinner. It was definitely the best choice. By the time we got home we just put the boys straight to bed.

~4~

The baby has been moved into his own room! There really hasn't been a compelling reason to keep him in our room for the last month or so. We were all sleeping fine, he sleeps for a good 8-9 hours every night, so it was time. I probably should have done this sooner. I much prefer the changing table in his bedroom to the changing table accessory attached to the Pack 'n' Play and I really enjoying feeding him in the rocking chair in his room. Much more comfortable that propping pillows up in our bed and feeding him there. (I think my husband appreciates this as well.) It's been a good move. And he looks tiny again! He was looking so big in the Pack 'n' Play, but now looks small again in his big ol' crib. So sweet!

~5~

I had a surreal moment the other day. I was driving home from work with the boys and just had this weird moment where I thought "How did I get here?" Not in a I'm-having-a-mid-life-crisis kind of moment, just in a wasn't-I just-in-college-like-yesterday-and-now-I'm-driving-a-minivan-with-three-kids-in-the-back kind of moment. It was like I was suddenly my younger self for a brief moment wondering where I was. I had to laugh at myself about this. I used to wonder what it wold be like to wake up one morning and find yourself in your life 20 years in the future. Can you imagine how weird that would be? Maybe I'll think more on that idea. Could be the basis of my first novel.

~6~

I think you could say that I went chocolate diving yesterday. I was eating dark chocolate covered almonds (YUM!) and dropped one. I crawled under my desk and came back with two pieces of chocolate. I have no idea how long the other piece had been down there. I'm about 98% certain that I have not eaten any of that other kind of chocolate in the last month since I've been back at work. So that means it's been there at least four months, but likely longer?? ICK!! I threw it away, obviously. I threw both away. Obviously the far reaches of the space under my desk haven't been cleaned in a while. ICK again!

~7~

Can you believe that this coming Sunday is Palm Sunday!! Lent is almost over. What are your plans for Holy Week? Do you attend the various Masses and services during the Triduum? Do you bring the kids and at what ages? Are you a family that goes to the Vigil or to Easter Sunday morning Mass? What are your plans for Easter Sunday itself? Share in the comments, I'm really curious about how other families do things.

Check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary. Have a good weekend!!

Small Success Thursday, No. 6

 #1
Work Success: I finished a quarterly report on Monday. You'd think this would be an easy thing to do when you consider that I keep a consistent format to these reports and I had all the info I needed by last Thursday. But I ended up not working on it on Thursday, then I was off on Friday. I figured it'd be no problem to get it done on Monday. But then I had meetings all Monday morning followed by a weird monitor display problem with my computer which we fixed just in time for me to then go pump milk. After that it was lunch, check email, then another meeting, and then it was time to go pump again. So then it was 3:30 PM and I still hadn't started the report. It was due by the end of the day and I sent it to her at 4:55 PM. Just under the wire.

#2
Today is exactly one month since I went back to work after maternity leave. And I'm still breastfeeding!! I didn't think I'd be able to last, but here we are, still going strong. Even though I don't find the actual breastfeeding part all that enjoyable, I have learned to appreciate it more than the pumping part. I could totally do without having to lock myself into a storage closet lactation room twice a day and hook myself up to an electric motor. But it is making it possible for Silas to continue having my milk 100% of the time. The pros definitely out weigh the cons.

#3
I went to the grocery store!! On my own! Yes, it was 10 o'clock at night, but I managed to get there. And now I have lunches to bring with me to work each day and don't have to go to the Student Center or a local restaurant. This week was getting expensive (we were out of town last weekend, so we've been improvising all week). It was so nice though to go without any kids. I even got to use one of the little carts that don't have space for kids. So great!

What are your small successes?? Share them here or over at CatholicMom.com as part of the Small Success Thursday fun.

Survey on Miscarriage Resources

Today on Facebook a friend of mine shared a link to this survey for women who have experienced a miscarriage. I believe it is being done by the Archdiocese of Washington. They are working on developing resources and information for those who have been affected by miscarriage and are looking for information from those who have gone through a loss.

I completed the survey and it had questions on there about your own loss, how you dealt with the grief, what resources you used or where you got information, what you wished was available to you, and much more. It was a pretty comprehensive survey.

If you have the time and are so incline, I encourage you to  fill out the survey yourself and help the archdiocese in their quest to provide more and better information to other parents who may experience the pain of miscarriage.

Thanks!!

https://s.zoomerang.com/s/miscarriagesurvey

Small Success Thursday, No. 5

#1
I'm actually writing this post. I almost didn't.

#2
I cleaned our kitchen floor last night. It had been getting the short end of the stick for a little too long. It doesn't help that I hate the bright white tile floor we have and that I have two two year old toddlers who don't know how to keep food on the table. The ants are started finding their way in again (had that problem last year too). So I swept, vacuumed, and mopped. This morning? No ants. Success!!

#3
I managed to get myself together enough to think about Easter this year. I totally slacked on a few Christmas things this past year (though the whole having a baby thing probably gives me a good excuse) and missed some birthdays and such in the new year. But I'm on the ball now!! I got some Easter gifts for a few precious people in our lives and even ordered some birthday gifts for the boys for the end of May. We won't talk about the fact that I still have a few thank you notes to write and I just last night flipped over my birthday calendar to April and realized that birthday season is going into full force this month.

Bonus #4
I rearranged part of our basement space to create a small space for myself. I set up our card table in a corner and bought a three-drawer, plastic storage unit to put next to it. I moved all my cards, card filing boxes, envelope boxes, and all the gift wrap stuff to that area. I still need to do a bit more organizing, but not I have a spot to wrap gifts and write out cards (and maybe letters??). And I could use it for other things as well. It's in a storage space in the basement, but that's okay with me. I was very pleased with my little set up.

What are your small successes this week? I'm linking this post up with Small Success Thursday at CatholicMom.com.