I'm Baaackkkk....

So I haven't blogged in quite a while...

Several contributing factors caused my deliquency... First having two kids and working full time is extremely exhausting! I don't know how women do it! Some women make it look so easy, but don't be fooled! My house is a constant wreck! I haven't worn make up since the baby was born!

Also, my computer died! I have debated endlessly whether to get my laptop fixed, but Joe ended up getting a new laptop, I got the hand me down. So as silly as it sounds, I don't have my old bookmarks on this one, so I just kind of forgot about blogging!

At work, my responsibilities keep growing! I keep trying to cram triple the work into the same amount of time (who wants to spend more time at work- especially when I don't get paid for overtime!). That means I bring some stuff home to do after the kiddos are in bed.

Jordan now stays with my mom during the week (Claire does too) rather than daycare (separate post on this later), so when we get him home I take him out to play with the neighbor kids a lot more. I am still trying to keep him social! That means when I get home, I am outside pretty much nonstop playing. On the plus side, I have lost weight and am back to a size 6...but the house is falling apart.

Joe started school in January. He studies like a maniac all week. Poor guy can not multi-task to save his life. He does his best, but it isn't like before when he cleaned and cooked...That is mostly me these days. On Mondays and Fridays when he is home, he still does everything, which is wonderful!

Hooray for Potty Training!

After months and months of waiting for Jordan to take some interest in the potty himself, I gave up.

I decided that I couldn't afford two kids in diapers, and changing two kids all day was exhausting. So we decided to do Potty Training Boot Camp! This method was given to us by our friend Angela.

Basically we picked a long weekend and went to work. I had a four day weekend over labor day, so we chose that one.

We started bright and early Friday morning! We got the big boy underwear on Jordan, and every twenty minutes we fought him to sit on the potty. It was horrible, to say the least. The kid is incredibly determined and strong willed. By noon I had enough, and told Joe I was gonna go to work! But we stuck it out and kept going. Finally by the end of the day he did pee on the potty!

By Saturday afternoon he got the idea. By Monday he was a pro. It has been now three weeks, and he is doing pretty well. He does have the occasional accident, and we are using Pull-ups at night (mostly b/c I get so little sleep with Claire, I didn't want to add bet wetting issues into the mix).

Hooray for Jordan!

Jordan Turns 3

This past weekend my little boy turned 3.

I can't believe how much he has changed, how fast the time has gone by, and most of all how much I love that little boy.

My whole world revolves around my kids! Jordan is an amazing little guy. He has changed so much in the past year.
- He started out at age 2 barely speaking, to being a chatterbox now.

-He loves dinosaurs, trains, anything with wheels, and baby sister!

-He is very sensitive and oohhhhsss and ahhhsss over tender moments on tv.

-He loves ice cream and keeps getting it out of the freezer and bringing it to us to get him some.

- He just moved up to the preschool class and loves it!

-He still doesn't sleep through the night, in fact baby sister sleeps much better than he does!

-He is very strong willed! He likes to do things his way.

-He can count to 12 and knows most of the abc's. Pretty amazing for a kid that hardly spoke 5 words six months ago!

-He has me wrapped around his little finger!


His birthday party was fun. Jordan didn't understand why all kinds of people were in our house and screamed bloody murder when we sang to him! It was cute and thankfully I got it all on video!

Jordan is taken over by the Exorcist

Friday night I was feeling pretty down,and just wanted to go to bed early. It had been a long week, and I was ready for it to be over. Joe and Charis were wanting to go see a movie, so I stayed home with Jordan. As soon as he was all tucked into bed, Joe and Charis left, and I nestled snuggly into my bed to watch some tv and play on the internet.

Soon after I finally fell asleep, Jordan came running into my room crying. I woke up to hear and see him projectile vomit, seriously at least three feet, of chocolate milk and bologna chunks all over my cream colored carpet. It went on and on and on! I jumped out of bed and by the time I reached him, it was still going!

Finally it stopped and I picked him up and we went into the bathroom, to prevent my carpet from any further demise. I grabbed the phone and called Joe to tell him to come home immediately, after he stopped at CVS to pick up a prescription (sometimes it is great to be a doctor!).

Poor Joe and Charis had just got their tickets, gotten all their snacks, and had just sat down in their seats when I called them! They both were so sweet and didn't complain at all, just rushed right home.

Unfortunately Joe misunderstood me and just got some pedialyte, and didn't get the prescription. So back to CVS he went, this time to the wrong one. But finally the poor guy got it all right, right CVS, right prescription. I felt so bad. We gave Jordan the nausea medication, and he intermittently would complain of a tummy ache but thankfully no more vomit!

My carpet on the other hand will never be the same. After vigorous shampooing, there is still a stain...damned chocolate milk! Too bad that wasn't the only insult my carpet sustained this weekend.

After the vomiting bonanza was over, the next joy to settle upon our house was diarrhea! I was taking a nap, because I also got some sort of plague during this, leaving Joe to man the house alone. Joe came rushing up with Jordan and declared he had explosive diarrhea. He plopped him down on the bedroom floor and started to change him. When he opened the diaper it was like he opened the portal to hell! The smell was horrific, but was even more disturbing was the sight of completely watery poop come flowing out of his diaper and all over the carpet!

Back to the carpet shampooer I went. Like the vomit stain, it will always be reminder of this horrible weekend.

For the next three days Jordan had diarrhea, nearly every 10 minutes! I swear it was terrible. We went through an entire box of diapers, a sixty count, in one day. I would have been completely panicked if he weren't bouncing off the walls between episodes.

In the middle of the night he would get out of bed and wander into the hall declaring, "Poozy!" Joe would get up and change him. I tried to alternate with him, but felt like death myself.

Today is Tuesday. Jordan seems to be better. I still feel weak and tired. Walking up the stairs took a huge effort. But the real victim is Joe, he is sicker than a dog now. Last night he was just burning up and said he felt nauseated.

This weekend we have some people coming to visit, hopefully we won't infect them!

Vacation, temper tantrums, and family drama

Joe on Bourbon Street

Joe ate a raw oyster, I played the pregnancy card (no raw foods!)

Eric, Roger, Brad, and me (guys from residency)

These last few weeks have been a whirl wind of activity. I had a military training/conference thing to go to in New Orleans. Being as this is probably one of the last times Joe and I will have to go on vacation before the new baby arrives, we decided to leave Jordan at home!

We went to New Orleans and had a wonderful time. Half of my residency class was there! It was great to see them again. We had so much fun catching up and comparing life after residency. Most of the days I was done with my lectures before 12, so Joe and I would hit the town! We were right in the French Quarter so we were within walking distance of everything. Every lunch and dinner we went out of incredible meals. I actually gained 6 pounds in five days! I was an eating machine!

Some of the days Joe was feeling pretty down because he missed Jordan so much. We saw him on skype every night. Charis did an incredible job taking care of him! My mom also watched him when Charis had to work. Together they took Jordy to the zoo, the beach, and the park. I wasn't as worried about Jordy as Joe was, but I knew he was in good hands, and have left him in the past for long periods of time. But this was only the second time Joe had ever left him! When Jordan was about a year old, Joe and I left him overnight with my parents. That was it, in 30 mos, Joe has only been away for one night!!

So we were both really excited to get home and see Jordan, but Joe especially! When we did get home, Jordan was so excited to see us! It was so cute to see his little face get all excited! Plus he started calling me mommy instead of Bee!!

We were all so happy to be a whole family unit again....

Then the next day happened.

I needed to return some maternity clothes that I had bought online to Old Navy. We got to Old Navy and while I was talking with the sales people, who couldn't return my stuff b/c I didn't have the invoice, Jordan found some silly putty he wanted. Joe tried to wrestle it away from him, resulting in a horrible temper tantrum.

We got outside the store and we put him on a time out. Joe had to pee really bad so I said I would hold the bag, my purse, and two jackets, plus watch Jordy so he could go pee. Just when Joe was out of sight, Jordy made a run for it into the street.

I darted after him, as fast as a pregnant woman wearing uncomfortable maternity pants that are too big and falling down, holding a purse, a bag of unreturnable clothing, and two jackets, could dart. I did manage to catch him, grab him by the shirt and drag him to the other side of the street, all with about 3 cars witnessing the spectacle. Once on the other side, he wriggled free and made another dash for it.

This time I caught his arm, and yanked him back from certain death. Thank God we were in public, because by this point I was so mad I could have killed him on the spot!

Joe returned to Jordy howling on the side of the road, me crying, and the day shot. I insisted on being taken home.

Joe got Jordan into his car seat, and hugged me, then said, "This is what we rushed home for?"

The next two days weren't much better. Everything we planned to do, Jordan found some new level of temper tantrum to reach. Joe and I periodically look and say, "I can't believe we are doing this again!"

I certainly hope my sweet little boy returns soon....I miss him.

On a happier note, we got the ultrasound done on Monday. We were fully expecting it to be another boy after taking that IntelliGender Test. Imagine our surprise when the lady said, "Its a GIRL!"

We made her check three times, each time it was still a girl!

That night I went out and bought a little pink dress! Then after a quick look around the little girl department, realized it is quite possible I will go to the poor house buying cute pink clothes!

Changes

Changes are afoot!

This Monday Jordy will be starting day care. Not because we need someone to watch him, but b/c I think it will be good for him....and Joe agreed (after much nagging and cajoling).

I was beginning to get worried about Jordan's speech, after all his is 2 and hardly says 15 words. We had him evaluated and he was diagnosed with speech delay, and if you have had the opportunity to see him with Joe you will understand why. Those two have some sort of freaky ESP thing going on. Joe will look at Jordy and say, "He's thirsty". Then hand Jordy a drink, which he will happily take. I don't know how Joe knows these things, but somehow he does! The kid doesn't need to speak while Joe is around, Joe can read his mind!!

So Monday will be his first day at daycare. He is going to go to the one on base, right across from my clinic. I hope that it is a smooth transition and that he (and Joe) can survive the separation!

PPS??

Is there such a thing as PPS? Parent Protection Services?

If there is, I need to place a serious phone call. Our little angel, Jordykins, constantly beats us up!

He comes over with a sweet little grin, all ready to play, then flog us repeatedly with one of his toys. The worst one I have received was with a Simpson Toy. I didn't see it coming when Ralph sped towards my head doing at least 100mph. He made contact just above my left eye brow. Now this was about 5 weeks ago, and my head is still sore in that spot.

My personal favorite, however, is being peacefully asleep and being woken up by a television remote smashing into my skull repeatedly. Nothing gets the juices flowing in the morning like a good concussion.

Joe has many more tales to tell. My personal favorite is the nose story. Joe was asleep when Jordy thought the best way to wake him up would be to stick his little fingers into Joe's nose. Once as deep in there as he could manage, he rakes his finger nails down the side. Joe woke up to blinding pain and a nose bleed. Oh what fun and merriment ensued.

We have tried to teach Jordan to be nice, to be gentle, but nothing seems to be sinking in. Joe used to get annoyed with the dogs, but now remembers that Pezzy got the concept of "nice" in one afternoon. Poor Jordy still hasn't caught on... Any advice for two battered parents?

Is this ever going to end?

I have an awful confession to make....Jordy still sleeps with us most of the time...a lot of the time....okay damn it! If I am coming clean I will just do it! Jordan ends up sleeping in our bed ALL THE TIME!

When he was about 4 months old, I started back on the inpatient service at the hospital and couldn't deal with him waking up every two hours to nurse. I was exhausted! There was no way that I could wake up every two hours and feed him, then get up at 5AM to go round at the hospital, then work until 6PM come home and do it all again. I was sooooo tired.

Joe and I agreed then that we would make him start sleeping in his own bed. For one terrible night we listened to him scream bloody murder for about 4 hours. It was awful. We eventually went downstairs and huddled together around the baby monitor. I cried, Joe cried. We felt just awful. But in the morning Jordy still liked us! He was fine all the next day. The next night we did it again, only when we put him in bed, he rolled over and went right to sleep.

Things were glorious for about two months. Jordy was sleeping like a champ in his own bed, and Joe and I were well rested normal humans again.

Then we decided to go to California to visit family. This one week of vacation permanently destroyed Jordy's sleeping schedule. The time change was hard, we couldn't let him cry b/c we were staying with family, and when we returned to Nebraska things never really got back on track.

Fast forward over a year later, yes that is right A YEAR!! I keep trying to repeat the magical solution of letting him cry for one night, but Joe, having been traumatized by the first time, can not do it!

When we put Jordy down and he cries, Joe makes a mad dash in there like the kid is on fire! Once he goes and picks Jordy up, it is over. The little guy is attached to him like glue. Then before you know it, he is in our bed ripping out my hair at the root and kicking Joe in the pills.

It is even worse now that I am working nights. I am not there to even give Joe a scowl when he goes in there. When I get home from work, I have to fight Jordy for my side of the bed.

Don't get me wrong, I love snuggling with my little Jordykins. I love how warm he is, and all the cute little noises he makes. I love how he breaths, and how he smiles in his sleep. Sometimes he even lets out little giggles. And sometimes, yes it's true, I end up getting him and not Joe.

But now I am starting to become afraid. I picture Jordan being 15 and still in our bed. Tonight I am home, Joe is asleep in our bed, Jordy woke up and Joe jumped up and got him. I took him and returned him to his own bed. He did cry for about 10 minutes total, but now is resting comfortably.

I think I will have to send Joe away for about a week to get the whole sleep schedule down, then I can reintroduce Joe to the mix.

Any suggestions? How on earth do other people do this?

Happy New Year

I spent the New Year at the ER working. Normally we have 2-3 drunks per night, so for New Years I was expecting an invasion. Robert was nice enough that he came in to help out. Surprisingly it was really slow. In fact the only patient we had before midnight was Jordy! Yes it's true, my son was the only patient.

Joe called me and said that Jordy was running a really high temp that wasn't coming down with Tylenol and Motrin. Then Jordy was letting out some blood curdling screams and shaking. I told him to come in immediately.

Luckily Robert was already there so I didn't have to pin down Jordy and look in his ear myself. I don't like to be Jordy's doctor, just his mommy! He had an ear infection! I was really surprised! I hope that this isn't going to be a recurring problem.

Now we are giving him Amoxicillin twice a day. It is quite traumatic for everyone involved. Jordy is freakishly strong and fights us. I feel like we are killing him as he sputters and tries to spit it out. Last night Joe brought him to see me at the ER and we had one of the nurses give it to him. He actually did much better with the nurse than us!

Only 7 more days of antibiotics to go....it's gonna be a long week!

Parenting is NOT for the faint of heart

Today I was at work when I got a panicked call from Joe wondering if
he should come into the ER for evaluation.

Apparently there had been an incident at home.

Last night we had enchiladas with homemade salsa for dinner. Little
Jordykins really likes to eat tortilla chips just barely dipped in the
salsa. The only problem is he doesn't really understand how to hold
onto the chip. After a few nibbles, he crushes it in his hands. The
end result is tortilla chip crumbs sprinkled all around our house.

Jordy then likes to pick up the tortilla chips, suck on them until they
are soggy, then force feed them to either Joe or I. He is pretty
relentless in his forcefeeding. He will keep jamming it in your face
until you finally succumb to the soggy chip feeding.

Well, today Joe was watching tv and Jordy was eating one of the chips,
sucking the life out of it apparently. Then Jordy crawled up on the
couch next to Joe and began to force feed it to him. Since Joe was in
the middle of something on the tv, Laker game maybe?, he just opened
his mouth and welcomed the soggy chip....only it wasn't a chip.

Immediately Joe sensed it was something quite different.... POOP!

Jordy had somehow gotten a pebble of his poop, sucked on it till it was
good and mushy, then jammed it in Joe's mouth!

Joe immediately began spitting and wiping his mouth and shouting.

Jordy thought this was great and began smiling, laughing, and applauding in
earnest!

When I asked how Jordy was doing, Joe informed me that he had no idea
as he had been brushing his teeth for the last thirty minutes.

He checked on Jordy, and he was fine watching tv. Joe, however, will be
permanently traumatized.

Korea Update

We have survived almost two weeks here!

Our stuff that we had shipped over arrived. We finally have internet in our place, and a working phone. Last night we went and got cell phones. The only thing we are still missing is a car! Our is arriving October 20th, but I am working on buying a used car. It is really hard to find one- they sell almost once they are posted online!

We are adjusting to live in Korea. There are some small but significant differences. First off I finally figured out that we don't have a garbage disposal in our kitchen. It looks like there is one, but I could never find the plug. Finally I asked my friend Trent who taught me how to use the contraption. All the food goes down the drain and catches in this little netted trap. Then you put this lid over the trap and it centrifuges all the food particles down to a dry lump. Then you take the dry lump out to the trash pile. At the trash pile they have these yellow bins that you put all the food stuff in. It is really gross.

They recycle everything here. We have to separate all of our trash. I still haven't quite figured out where to put the dirty diapers? Having to work so hard to throw things away really makes you realize how much trash you create!

The next thing that is really different is the laundry. The property manager assured us that we did have a washer and a dryer, but in the laundry room was only one machine. Turns out that it is both a washer and a dryer. I assumed that once it was done washing a tumble cycle would then start. I was wrong. What happens is it washes the clothes, then heats up like an oven. Then it proceeds to bake your clothes for about three hours. Sometimes they turn out good, sometimes they are still damp. Out on our patio is a clothes rack for hanging the clothes to dry. I am using it quite frequently.

All of the appliances sing- whenever they are done with anything it sings a little song. Jordy really enjoys it!

I start actual work on Tuesday. Kind of scary since I will be all alone for three days because our flight commander is gonna be gone! I guess I will survive (hopefully the patients will too).

On Friday I picked up all my chem warfare stuff. They have two separate bags- training stuff and real world stuff. On Monday I get to go practice wearing everything, gas mask and all. I am sure I will be drenched in sweat by the time we are done!

Since we have been here I haven't been able to work out at all! I am so exhausted from the time change. I am starting to adjust. Jordy has done better than Joe and I. He is adjusted to the time. Hopefully by the end of this week we will be all settled and in a routine. It is hard for me to change my schedule all the time.

Next weekend we are going to take a tour of Seoul with the military tour group. I am looking forward to seeing the big city.

Jordy 11 months old!!

I can't beleive that Jordan is already 11 months old! It has gone by so fast, I feel like we hardly got to enjoy him as a baby... He runs around the house and picks up interesting things, and carries them around until he finds something else interesting, he then leaves the old item right there and picks up the new item with fervor. He then will wander around babbling excitedly. We call him the collector.

Operation Stork Attack has lost some of it's gusto. I did manage to lose, and maintain a 5 lb weight loss. Things sadly though, are not the same. I need to get motivated again. Here I am with my friend who works for the Bellevue police department. I couldn't get my hair right that day...

The movers came and took our stuff to Korea, we still have some stuff in our house, but not much. The movers will come again at the end of August and take all the remaining stuff to storage. We still need to find someone to rent our place...hopefully someone will want it.