So long Exersaucer....

Today I bit the bullet and finally put away Ham's exersaucer.

The truth is I really only stopped using it two months ago.

It sounds bad, but in case of emergencies, like if I needed a good place to stick Ham where I knew he would stay put for a few minutes, it did the job.

But we really are past all that.

We had been spring cleaning. I've been cleaning out the pantry, the fridge, the bookshelves.

And Ham has been finding new places to put my pots and the remotes to the t.v.

He likes to keep things interesting and I suppose it is his way of saying there are better places to put things.

I am not amused.

I had finally got around to our bedroom and finished putting clothes away and tripped over the exersaucer for the fifteen millionth time.

Most of the time I ignore that, because every time I think about putting it away, I get a lump in my throat.

In my heart, though, I knew it was time.

While Ham was taking his nap, I pushed the buttons on the sides and slowly took it apart.

I thought about the day we bought it.

We were lucky, because we hadn't had to buy anything for Ham. Clothes, shoes, toys, you name it. We were covered.

We were driving home from his four month shots we were a month late on and Mr. Yardbird had just gotten home from India. We wanted to get Ham something special from us and decided to swing past Babies R Us to grab an exersaucer.

Some how or another I ended up putting the exersaucer together by myself. I think because Mr. Yardbird had to go back to work.

I don't have the patience to read directions so naturally I jammed all the wrong pegs in the wrong places. Then I couldn't get them out and I forced to leave one of the toys off the top because it wouldn't fit with my arrangement.

I remember the look on Ham's face when he got into the exersaucer and how he cried inconsolably when he first saw the Penguin toy. And how for the first few weeks I had to face him away from that terrifyingly happy Penguin. But in so doing, Ham learned to love the seesaw panda bears.

And I remember how content and safe Murphy must have felt knowing Henry was confined to the exersaucer and how sad she must have been when he slowly transitioned out of it knowing her safety was compromised.

Poor Murphy.

I really did love that little exersaucer that seemed to bring Ham joy for months and months and me peace of mind to do things like wash the dishes and fold clothes. Now I as I fold cloths I have a little guy a few feet over unfolding them and folding them HIS way and I as I load my dishwasher, I have a little guy unloading it.

Oh, well.

Taking it easy

In this break between semesters, Ham and I have managed to keep ourselves pretty busy. We visited Mr. Yardbird, I picked up embroidary, I learned some new crock pot recipes, I went to a festival, we bought a pool, we cleaned the house and we hosted a bachlorette girls night.

And tomorrow we have orientation for.....day care! Ahhh!!

So many changes are headed our way, it will be nice to sit back and enjoy the summer.

Here's some of things we have been busy doing:

Hanging out with our favorite person

Owie and his band at the festival

Sally and me

Cousins!

Swimming!!

Moms are the best medicine.

A few Saturdays ago as I bathed Ham before bedtime, I had the distinct feeling that something wasn't right about him.

For a kid whose never really been sick before, it wasn't clear to me that this is what it was.

His eyes were greyish, reddish and they looked tired. But that made sense though, because it was bedtime.

But grey? I don't know.

Plus he was in great spirits. Well sort of. Aside from the occasional whine. But that made sense too, because his two bottom and two top teeth were finally making their debut.

Just to be sure I called Mr. Yardbird to say that I was thinking maybe Ham looked sick and I was going to snap a picture real fast and send it to him to see what he thought about it.

And this is what I snapped.

Needless to say it made me sound not very believable.

With a towel in hand, I scooped him into my arms and started drying him off. His little body started shivering.

And the thing is, he never shivers when he gets out the bath so I was certain there was something up.

I grabbed the ear thermometer, that I don't even know how to use and pressed the bottom near Henry's ear - 102.

So I was right, a fever.

But that wasn't all.

That night and the nights that followed Ham woke up every few hours screaming in gut wrenching pain.

After a trip to the E.R. and the doctor, we had it all figured out...Salmonella Poisoning.

This explained the pain in his stomach, the blood in the you know what and the fever.

It would have been manageable, maybe if I didn't have a 17 pages left to write of my assessment, a 30 minute speech to give and final paper all due that week, oh, and deadlines for applications.

All with a boy, who bless his heart, wanted nothing more than to cling to his mom when the pain hit him.

I was in sleep deprivation mode trying to finish up the semester and taking care of my sick Ham.

It would have been impossible, but...

our moms saved the day.

Ma Ma B and Maw Maw took shifts. They cooked, they cleaned and they offered support like only moms can.


Ma Ma B and I discovered what a great de-stresser the series Downton Abbey was....well when we could actually hear what was going on.

And somehow my mom made the best homemade chicken noodle soup out of the things I already had in my kitchen. Who knew?

And slowly but surely Ham went from looking like this.....

 

To this......

 

 

To this....

And finally to this....

Thanks God for moms!