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!

Ham's First Hair Cut

I took the day off from school work to relax, kick back and enjoy some peace and quiet.

And that would be a lovely idea if that's what really happened.

Instead, I took a break from my school work to clean my house, realize my house is infested with tiny ants again like a bad B movie, do the dishes, do the laundry and cook and over salt some black bean soup.

And to top it off, as I was loading the dishwasher, I realized it had been a good five minutes since I had heard a peep from Hammy. Which could only mean one thing.

With one solid leap from the dishwasher to the living room doorway, I locked eyes with one mischievous little Ham sitting on the floor with my coffee cup in one hand and the other hand swashing around in my cold hours-old coffee.

Hours-old coffee that for the record I wasn't finished drinking yet.

I rolled my eyes, grabbed some wet wipes and wiped him down, while he kept saying "Uh Oh!"

Yep uh oh.

While I started wiping down the floor where he seemed to have splashed it all around, I heard the clanging of dishes from the kitchen. I whipped around and looked for Hammy.

Nowhere.

I jumped up to my feet and rushed into the kitchen and there he was UNloading my dishes.

And if that wasn't bad, about fifteen minutes later Ham face planted into the coffee table seconds after I asked him to please for the love of Pete stop whining. He looked up at me distracted, misjudged where his hand should go when leaning on the coffee table and slammed cheek first into the table, which made me feel real bad.

I could have called it a day but I thought that it would be the perfect day to end the long hair mullet madness going on at the nape of Hammy's neck.

So we ventured to Sally's Beauty Supply and we bought an all-in-one cut your kid's hair kit.

Some kids might have done better with a candy distraction but for Ham, I steamed some corn and some peas and had crackers on hand to keep him cooperative.

We also skyped with Mr. Yardbird who had Hammy laughing so hard I wasn't sure I would be able to cut his hair after all.

In the end we made it work and we ended a chaotic day with a semi-decent cheap because it was free haircut.

Here are some before pictures.......

But I don't need a haircut.

 Side view before

So I was really nervous but with Mr. Yardbird there to cheer me on...... 

I realized I was going to do just fine.

So while Ham chatted it up with his dad, I snipped and snipped. 

 While Hammy laughed, I tried to remember what I saw in all the you tube videos I watched.

Almost finished.

And when I was finally done, I chased Ham all through the house, to get at least one picture of the final look.

Chasing him around the house with a broom, except he has the broom.

 More chasing....

Eating the hair water sprayer

Not so bad!

What a day!

Two Peas in a Pod

A few days ago at the last minute, I decided to take Hammy for a stroll. It had been a while, maybe since my last post about spring flowers, since I had done so. It was getting pretty close to sun down so I tried not to waste anytime getting Ham in his stroller.

We decided to take the more scenic route that day, because the tree with the red hairy flowers that overpowered the sidewalk had been trimmed back, so that path was now perfectly clear for us.

Ham was twisting and turning in his seat. He can't ever decide which view is the best.

We turned the corner by the Baptist church and as we walked along I looked over at our favorite tree across the street. On our last walk it was filled with beautiful white flowers. I meant to take a picture of it but the traffic was so bad on St. Joseph day that I decided I should wait.

I really wish I hadn't. Now only a few flowers were left and from what I could tell hundreds of stringy green leaves that I hadn't noticed before. Looking at it now, it reminded me of the aftermath of a party with streamers and decorations thrown about when only two weeks ago it was a well-orchestrated beautiful event.

It was still beautiful to me though.


I wheeled Ham over the curb and across the street, if we only had a little time before the sun set we might as well spend it here.

I pulled Ham's stroller under the branches and I glanced up to pull some flowers down for him. That's when I realized that the green stringy leaves that I saw were not leaves at all. They were pea-pods. Well I guess not real peas but something similar.

I sat down on the concrete sidewalk and showed Ham the pea-pod and how you could peel it open and see the seeds inside. He said "Oh!?" Because it's his go-to word these days.

And all the times we sat at this tree and we looked at its flowers and leaves. All the times we pointed at cardinals and blue-jays that hopped around in its branches, I never realized until that moment why this tree fascinated me. Why it was my favorite stop.

When I looked at that pea-pod in my hand I remembered that my Aunt Carrie must have had a tree near her house that had pea-pods hanging from it too.

I remember showing them to her when I was playing outside.

"That's like us,"she told me. "Two peas in pod."

I never forgot that or what she meant by it. We were different but we shared a bond because we had the same name.

I smiled thinking about her and thinking about what she might think of Hammy if she were alive today. How she would be crazy about him, I just knew it. And I wondered if maybe she was sitting right there with us when we stopped by our favorite tree.


The sun was finally setting and I crossed the street to take Hammy home.

I glanced up at the sky and I saw a silver lining behind our tree. I smiled again thinking about another memory I had of us in the parking lot of the grocery store. I was maybe five years old. I spotted a silver lining in the sky and I pointed up at it. "Carrie Leigh, do you know how special that is?" I shook my head. "That's a sign from God letting you know that your loved ones in heaven are peeping down on you." she said. "I bet it's my mom and my dad, let's wave to them." So the two of us waved to the sky to tell our loved ones not to worry that we were doing just fine.

And as Hammy and I strolled along and looked up at the silver lining in the sky, I told her we were doing just fine, but we sure do miss her.

Naptime

I'm a stay at home mom.

This doesn't mean I watch Ellen or Judge Judy or Price is Right.

I don't make bon bons. I don't eat bon bons.

I don't sit on the sofa. And ninety percent of the time I have not seen my remotes in days. I blame Hammy.

I have my good days and I have my real bad days. Just like everybody else.

And I have my shining moments too.

A few days ago I had a pretty rough morning.

I had been up until three working on school work. In fact, I had been up for most of the past two weeks doing that. I gave up trying to do it when Ham was awake.

And my Kuerig was broken. As it has been for two weeks.

To top it off, my son who has had no teeth for 12 months is now getting all of his teeth.....at the same time. All of them. And they refuse to surface, just the swollen buds of purplish gums is all that I can see and half of a tooth. The same half of a tooth I have been seeing for the past month.

All this causes my son to whine over and over again. It sounds like nails on a chalkboard. And it would be horrible except that in between these whining "my teeth hurt" fits he shots me a devilish smile.

But this morning it was whine after whine and no smiles. I tried everything to get his mind off of it but it was no use. I was tired, I was cranky and all I wanted to do was whine.

Finally it was nap time. I was elated. I finally got Ham to bed and I thought finally I can relax. Catch up on more schoolwork, load the dishwasher.

And thirty minutes into it, I heard the distinct sound of a man yelling at the top of his lungs.

I stood still for a moment and listened. Sure enough I was right.

My neighbor was having some work done on her roof and it sounded like one of the guys was furious with the other guy for something he had done incorrectly on the roof.

After five minutes of constant screaming I started to worry that he would wake Ham. After a few more minutes, that worry turned into anger. If he woke Ham than I would have a teething TIRED baby. And that's the worst.

Then I did something I'm embarrassed about. I threw my shoes on and I went out the door. I walked around the house and I walked right up to two guys on ladders. One of them was still screaming.

And I said. "Listen to Me!" The both turned to me surprised. "My son's in there" I motioned to the house. "I don't know what you are arguing about. I don't know what you are screaming about. But let me tell you something, if you wake my son up, I'm going to be mad. And you don't want to see me mad." They looked at me with mouths hanging open. They nodded in unison. "Thanks." and I waved as I left.

I didn't hear a peep from them for the rest of the day. But one of the guys came over and thanked me and told me that what I said needed to be said which made me feel a little less crazy.

The truth of the matter is you just can't interfere with a mom and nap time.

R E S P E C T

Sometimes I don't know when to keep My. Big. Mouth. Shut.

This is a reoccurring thing for me. It has nothing to do with keeping confidences. That I can do just fine.

I guess, what I mean is not saying anything when I'm mad.

You know how they say count to ten. Well, I have no time for that.

Before I tell you what I did today, I'll paint a bigger picture of myself with an example of this behavior a few years ago.

My husband and I were driving to Sam's. It was your typical Sunday and Mr. Yardbird had been pushing me to get on his Sam's membership.  A membership I didn't end up using for two more years.

He was adamant about it. It just couldn't wait. So off to Sam's we went. I was driving my car and Mr. Yardbird was relaxing in the passenger seat, flipping through my radio stations, which drives me nuts. He finally landed on Aretha Franklin's Respect and I told him to leave it.

And I don't know what came over me but I was singing it and I kind of sat up a little straighter in my seat. I was getting kind of sassy I guess. I don't know, that song will do that to you.

Mr. Yardbird just looked out the window trying his best to ignore me.

I pulled to a four way stop. It was mine turn and just as I was crossing over I noticed that the car to my left didn't look like it was going to stop. And before I could stop myself I pointed my finger, real sassy -like and with the song to back me up I mouthed the words, "You need to stop." But I didn't really just say it plainly, I said it like Aretha would if someone didn't stop at her four way stop.

Oh man.

And just as I finished telling that car it needed to stop. I saw something I had never seen before. The woman, who was driving, leaned forward and........started beating her chest and screaming.

Beating. Her. Chest.

I gulped. My eyes were huge as saucers.

I slowly turned to face forward and I put my weak foot on the accelerator.

What did she do?

She whipped her car around and she started following us. Screaming and yelling....and pointing. Oh, it was very scary.

"What do I do?" I whispered. "What do I do?"

"Oh, had you thought about that?" Mr. Yardbird said flatly. "Did you think that through before you POINTED at her and said stop your car.

I shook my head, "But what now, what do I do now?!" I pleaded.

"You are going to have to get out and fight her." Mr Yardbird said with amusement.

I was not amused.

I couldn't fight her. I couldn't fight anyone. She could have knocked  me to the moon with her pinky. Beat her chest? Who does that?

Instead, I did the only thing I could think of. I circled the parking lot twenty times, until she gave up trying to chase me down. And when I parked, I found a spot a million miles away. And I made Mr. Yardbird wait a good twenty minutes before we ventured out of our parked car.

My Sam's membership? Well I don't think I've ever taken a more terrified picture, which I have to look at every time I hand my membership card to the Sam's door person.

I haven't pointed that pointing finger while driving at anyone since, or any other finger for that matter.

So did I learn my lesson? Almost, but not quite.

I'll post that story tomorrow.