SuperDom!

Afternoon Snack!

Kid Magnet

When Daddy rips out the garden remains and then tills the whole thing, what does that make? You got it, a playground for the kids! Could you? Would you? Let your kids, I mean?

"Rototilling" the dirt, just like Daddy:

Catherine is carrying a big clump of dirt in her hands:

"Look at all that good dirt!" Yeah, on the pants, too. Ooh, lots of laundry coming.

Oh, this was the prime playground for quite a few days around here.

I know, Anne has light pink pants on, not the best color for dirt-playing.

But, hey, this is the view from the kitchen window, and they are fenced in. Bonus!

Some Serious Onion Breath

I just got done putting dinner in the oven (Cheeseburger Pie) and Joseph is hanging out in the kitchen, snacking on raw onions.

"More yun-yuns, Mommy!"

Anyone want to come over for toddler kisses later?

From Flu Shots To Famous Kids

I know every family has to make its own decisions about whether or not to vaccinate their children, but as a doctor who has seen some terrible cases of some of these diseases (measles, chicken pox, etc.) and knows about the devastating effects of others, I have long been a proponent of the usual childhood vaccinations. Like most parents, though, when a new vaccine comes out, I too hesitate, and do my research before we give it to our children.

Which brings me to the H1N1 vaccine. Look on the internet and you can find websites shouting that all vaccines are poisons, and you can find others that proclaim that it should be mandatory that all health care workers get the H1N1 vaccine. I have been in a quandary with this one, especially since I am pregnant, and it has been reported that pregnant women make up 6% of H1N1 deaths, even though they only make up 1% of the population.

So, I did a lot of research, throwing out the wacky websites on both sides of the vaccine argument. On the one hand it was new, meaning that side effects might not truly be known for a while. On the other hand, it was supposedly being made in the same manner as the seasonal flu vaccine. Then I read that potentially the government could, in time of emergency, allow the drug manufacturers to bypass the FDA and add adjuvants to the vaccine, even though some were not yet approved in the USA. Adjuvants are substances that stimulate your immune system and the reason they would add them is so that they could use less vaccine in each dose and thus be able to make more vaccines. One mentioned was potentially linked to the Gulf War Syndrome and another one possibly to infertility in rats. We decided that if any of those were in the vaccine, we would not get it.

Just last week, they opened up an H1N1 vaccine clinic to the public and pregnant women and health care workers were the only ones allowed to get it. So I contacted the health department and demanded to know what was in the vaccine. I talked with a very helpful person who looked it up for me, even though he had never heard of "adjuvants" before. He was able to find out that the vaccine in Kansas did not contain any of those substances and that it in fact did not contain anything different than the seasonal flu vaccine other than the inactivated H1N1 virus itself. I was reassured by that and decided to get it, but before I could get there, they ran out of the injection form of the vaccine.

It seems to be a day-to-day thing at this clinic as to when they'll be open, what form of the vaccine they'll have, and who can get it. Wednesday evening I found out that they would have both forms of the vaccine available the next day and that children up to age 4 would be included. So yesterday afternoon we arrived at 1:45 pm and it took us 5 minutes just to walk to the end of the line, which was way outside the building. Another 35 minutes and we made it to the door. Looking inside at the line snaking its way back and forth across a warehouse size room was enough to make me lose heart, but we stuck with it and kept waiting. The kids (I had Dominic, Anne, and Joseph with me) were exceptionally good somehow. I think they were entertained seeing all the people, especially all the other little kids and babies. Finally we made it to a doorway where a woman stood and quizzed everyone, checking to make sure we all fit the criteria to receive the vaccine. We were directed to a table where a woman gave me a clipboard with 4 long forms to fill out, one for each of us. I groaned inwardly, but we sat in some nearby chairs and I filled them out as fast as I could. That being done, we went to another line where a worker checked to make sure I filled them out correctly (I didn't, so I had to fix them, oops!), then to another table where a woman looked over the form and highlighted the important parts that would tell the vaccine givers at a glance what form to give. Then we got in another line and finally it was our turn!

Now, after our experience with the seasonal flu mist and the kids having meltdowns, I didn't even mention what we were waiting in line for. First, I got a shot and Dominic was fascinated by the fact that he saw some blood. Next, Joseph sat on my lap and the PA giving the shot said oh, the kids usually don't like this, even though it doesn't hurt. He gave it to Joseph and Joseph just laughed. The man was impressed, and I thought, yeah, that was probably the easy one. Anne, who screamed bloody murder last time, then hopped up on my lap and smiled the whole time while she got it. Well, well got off easy there. But, I knew that Dominic would have to have a shot, since he has asthma, so I was prepared for some crying. Well, what do you know? He didn't make a peep! Wow, getting the vaccine was the easiest part of the whole thing. By the time we made our way out of the building, it had been 1.5 hours.

Okay, if you've read this far, you might be wondering what this has to do with famous kids. Well, I will tell you. As we escaped into the fresh air and bright sunshine, there was a cameraman waiting for us. I had just seen him inside, so he must have targeted us there. He asked if he could ask a few questions and I consented. Then by the time we got home and collapsed and recovered (well, me, anyway, the kids didn't slow down a bit!), I had forgotten about it. Just as we were finishing a Halloween candy fest after dinner, the phone rang and it was one of Dan's sisters: "I just saw your kids on the news!" We stayed up for the 10:00 news and sure enough, there were the kids and little Anne calmly answering questions like she does it all the time. So cute!

The vaccine did not seem to affect the kids whatsoever. I got a bit of fever, body aches and a headache, but that is gone now. Just tired today, so we are taking it easy and enjoying the beautiful weather!

Of Candy and Wolves

The kids have been looking forward to Halloween for weeks now, and after all, who can blame them? They get to dress up in costumes and be taken by their parents to strange houses where the people inside give them candy! Here are the four munchkins: Doggie, Clown, Princess, and Parrot. Several costume reruns, but hey, they're still cute!
We loaded up in the mini-van and headed to a nearby town to hit one of the neighborhoods. If you can't tell, I went as a pumpkin (the belly, that is).

Hey, only one out of four is blurry. Not bad considering the level of excitement and the fact that we were just about to trick-or-treat at the first house.

What about the wolves, you are asking? Unfortunately, as I was walking up to the second house with the kids, a wolf jumped out right as we got to the stairs and started howling at the kids. Talk about some trauma inducement in a 2 year old (and a 4 year old who will remain nameless, the other 2 were frozen). The dad of the wolf was nearby and the guilt was just dripping off him as he ran over and ripped the wolf's head off to reveal a mere boy. Then he (the dad) seemed to want to do more to lessen his guilt, as Joseph was still crying, so he started throwing handfuls of candy into the children's sacks. Not a very good way to start the evening. It took poor Joseph a while to even want to go near another house. But, this story had a happy ending with lots of candy and happy kids, and Joseph seemed to have forgotten about the scary part.

Although, if you ask him now how trick-or-treating was, he'll say, "Woof scared me!!"

Time To Carve Some Pumpkins!

Here is the before shot of the kids with the 9 remaining pumpkins from our garden:
It was a little chilly last Sunday, but we were able to do this at the "arts & crafts" table in the garage. Here Dan is showing the kids how to draw the face on the pumpkin before carving.

Dan did all the carving (oh, yeah!):

Catherine carried the first one back to the porch:

You know the slimy part, where you have to get out the seeds and stringy stuff? Dominic thought it was pretty icky, but he did a little bit. As you can see from Catherine's face, she wanted no part of it.

Anne, however, dug right in, and she scooped out a lot of the junk.

Lest you think I did nothing but take pictures, here's proof. Catherine ended up helping as well.

The twins are showing off three of the finished jack-o-lanterns. Dan carved 4 and that was about the max for everyone.

Here they are, all lit up and ready to scare someone or something (maybe some skunks, or the neighbor's cat).

Thoughts On Coffee

How is that a woman can make it all the way through medical school and 3 years of residency, with many missed hours of sleep, and never acquire the habit or liking for coffee, but give her 4 small children and she soon cannot function without that morning cup?

You Know Mom Is Tired, #6

You know mom is tired when she gets up in the morning and starts sniffing the coffee beans (only used for cappuccinos!), while waiting for the coffee to brew.

Is It Strange?

Is it just me or would you think it was strange if your kids(the boys, mainly) wanted to lick the spoon you used to scoop out some shortening?

This has occurred on multiple occasions, so it's not like they don't know what it tastes like.

You Know You Are A Mom Of Boys...

...when you know the difference between a backhoe and a trackhoe.

Small Successes - 40

Since I haven't listed any of these in a while, I've been racking them up:

1) When we moved into our house over a year ago, we decided that the living room windows needed some kind of window treatment. There were faux wood blinds, but they needed something else. Plus, there were fancy curtain rods still hanging up from the previous owners. So, a few months later, we found these valances that matched the color scheme perfectly, so we bought them and brought them home. Well, you know how things like that are always creased when they come out of the package, but you just want to hang them up right away to see how they look? Yes, you know what I'm going to say. There they stayed, creases and all, for the next 10 or 11 months. Finally, a few weeks ago, I took them down, washed them and ironed them, and rehung them. Hooray, they look even nicer than they did!

2) I cleaned out my spice/herb cabinets (I have 2 small shelves by the stove and more shelves by the mixing area) and made a list of what was almost gone or used up. Before I went to the spice/herb sale at the grocery store!

3) I bought 36 pounds of apples at the grocery store on Tuesday for $12 (making them 33 cents a pound!). So far I have peeled and sliced half of them for applesauce. I have discovered that it takes 3 pounds of apples to make 1 quart of applesauce. My current total is 5 quarts in the freezer, a bunch eaten, and 3 quarts simmering on the stove as I type. 2 more batches to go! Simmering applesauce sure makes the house smell good!


Go to Faith and Family Live to read more Small Successes!

Humbling Moments

It doesn't take long for a new mom to realize that with parenthood comes the opportunity for many a humbling moment.

I took the kids to the doctor yesterday for Dominic's asthma checkup and all was going well until it was time for flu shots. They asked if I wanted to go ahead and get them for all the kids and I said okay. I tried not to say the word "shot" and it seemed to work. I've learned it's better just to surprise them at the last second. Well, then the nurse came in and said they were all out of the injections, did I want to give them the Flu-Mist? You might think this is a good thing, but I had intended to just get them all the same thing and Dominic can't have the Flu-Mist because he has asthma. I knew however, that he would be somewhat protected through herd immunity, so I said okay on the other three.

As the nurse left, I made the fatal mistake. "Guess what guys, you don't have to get a shot! You just get a little squirt in your nose!" The girls immediately started fussing and almost crying. What's the matter? It won't hurt. It might just tickle a little. "I don't like being tickled!" "Boo-hoo!" This of course spread to Joseph and he started to fuss a little. Here I thought I was off the hook. When the nurse came in Anne started getting hysterical, so I had them give it to Joseph first. He sat on my lap and it was over so fast he didn't even react. This of course didn't faze Anne, who was convinced SHE DID NOT WANT A SQUIRT IN HER NOSE! I was barely able to contain her and they got it in so fast she barely noticed. I thought, good, the worst is over.

Wrong! Dominic started crying because he didn't get one. Then we had to stop at the weight/BP/temp station so they could document vital signs for the vaccine recipients. Anne cried when they checked her blood pressure. Then to top it all off, Joseph refused to stand on the scales. So finally I had to get on there with him and listen to the nurse announce our combined weight. Then I had to step on by myself so she could subtract my weight to get his. ____ pounds, she announced loudly. At least it sounded loud to me and I mumbled something about oh, it must be that baby in Mommy's tummy.

Time to use the hand sanitizer and get the circus out of there!

I Swear I Feed Them!

The same kids who not long ago refused to eat the peels on apples, stood by devouring long strands of apple peels as I was peeling the apples for applesauce this morning. Maybe it's just more cool to eat them that way.

You Know You Have a Bunch of Little Ones, #16

You know you have a bunch of little ones when the plumber asks if you run a daycare.