It's Anecdote Time. Hey, I Thought They Were Funny.

Every time I go to Little Caesar's to buy a pizza, I get overcharged. Now, it's true that it is really cheap pizza to begin with, cheaper than I can purchase any other place, and it's also true that I've only ever been overcharged there by a nickle, but still it rankles me.

Michael and I are doing the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace program this summer, and even though we don't plan to give up use of our credit cards as per Dave's instructions, we felt that for the duration of the class we really ought to use the envelope system as much as possible. Which is why I keep losing nickles. Because I've been paying cash. About which I have very mixed feelings.

But here's the sitch: Last week I was going to be smart about it. I couldn't quite remember whether the pizza was going to cost me $5.45 or $5. 55, and I didn't feel like looking it up or doing the math, which would have taken me two seconds, so I took what I had, which was a five dollar bill, two quarters and five pennies. The plan was to give her the change based on what she told me, and this time to be sure to ask for a receipt.

As I near the pick-up window I plan out exactly what is supposed to happen, but then I get to the window and all my plans fly out the window. The pizza costs $5.45. I give her all my money. She doesn't even look at it really, gives me no change. I ask for the receipt. "I should get some change," I tell her. "Didn't you give me $5.45," she asks. I tell her what I gave her and then I say...

Wait for it.

"I should get a nickle back." She complies and I say something to try to make sure she doesn't feel bad about it.

Crap, Crap, Crap.

"Mommy, what's wrong? What's wrong, mommy? What's wrong?" Isaac is in the back seat in the van with me. I'm so amused and frustrated with myself and Little Caesar's pizza that I have to call Michael about it. Which sparks even more questions of what's wrong from my two year old.

So this girl at the window isn't good at making change, but look, it's my money! And I used to work in retail. I know how to make change. It's my own damn fault! What outrages me and makes me laugh all at the same time is that I thought I was going to be all smart and not make a mistake. Epic Fail! Not only that, but the receipt doesn't even show what actually happened in the transaction.  I doubt it would matter to you, but it matters to me.

I meant for this story to be funny, so if I've failed to make it so, please gently let me know in the comments.

Two more anecdotes:

1. Parker is four years old. A couple of weeks ago we're at CHOM and I hear him say to the lady at the craft table, "I'm four years old, but some people think I look older."

2. We've had a daytime guest at our house over the last several weeks, a friend of ours who is using our computer to take an online class. He walks into the living room one afternoon and tells us that he's going to have to find a school-age child to interview, someone six or older, for a class. Parker sweetly offers his services as an interviewee, even though he's younger than the lower age limit: "I'm tall!"

Repair Bear, We Hope

A few days ago I posted on facebook that Isaac had thrown his bear into the toilet.  This morning, from a seated position on the floor, in my husband's lap, Isaac lobbed his brother's bear across the room and into the toilet.  Yes, it's true that the bear now smells of pee, but I can't just throw it in the washing machine and here's the reason why.

A few days ago Parker's bear began hemmoraging filling beads from a hole in it's lower back.  This bear is so loved that he has been stitched up numerous times already, and there are runs like you'd get in panty hose all over his back.  His fur is long gone, as is the brown neck ribbon that Parker used to pull at with is teeth.  My husband is now attempting to restuff the bear with filling beads using a drinking straw, which works much better than the paper funnel he originally fashioned.

My son cannot sleep all night without his bear.  He's done it exactly once.  The second time we tried it he woke up in the night looking for his bear.  We are not ready to try the experiment again so soon.  When he finishes the refilling, we'll sew up the hole using travel sewing kit thread.  Then I'll stick him in a lingerie bag and throw him in the washing machine using Tide with Bleach (because that is what I have) and cold water.  I plan to repair the bear with a scrap of fabric held on with semi-permenant fabric glue.  I'm not exactly the patch and mend type, which is why Michael is doing the sewing, and I'll be using whatever fabric I can scavenge.  I'll have to figure out a way to cut the fabric in whatever odd shape is required for fit, keep the fabric from unravelling, and convince Parker not to pull the fabric away with his fingers.  My genius idea for repairing the bear on Thursday was with masking tape.  We really seem to know what we're doing here, don't we?

Parker loves to jump on the bed

Yesterday Parker held Isaac for the very first time. Maybe now that he's six months old it's a little less scary for Parker. Isaac has also been practicing rolling over as you will see below.




Monday morning, as we were driving to the church to deliver something, we came to our turn onto Hargrove Road. Parker pointed to the left and said, "That way to the church." Then he pointed to the right and said, "That way to Granna's house, and to the Gleasons." Parker has such a great memory. We haven't even been to the Gleason's house in months and months.

I wish he didn't love jumping on the bed quite so much though.

My First Time Uploading Video to Blogger

This is just a little video of me playing with Isaac one morning a couple of days after Mother's Day. I tried to load it as a private video to YouTube, but for some reason we were unable to grant access to the people (mostly family) who we wanted to see it. If you are a friend simply checking in to see if I've written anything lately, you may not be interested in the video--although he really is cute, and this is an opportunity to see him smile.

Weight Panic at the Pediatrician's

Yeah, it's hard to get on here to write anything. A couple of weeks ago I took Isaac in to the Pediatricians Office for his two week check up. A few of you already know what happened there.

Before I get to the part where you find me in tears, I'll tell you this. I thought it was significant, but I always tend to think that these things are significant.

In the well-patient waiting room there is a television showing children's programming. The movie that was showing while we waited was the 1975 version of Charlotte's Web, starring Debbie Reynolds.

When I was a little girl I had a vinyl record of the soundtrack to this movie. I knew all the songs, and I used to act out Charlotte's death scene near the end. At the time I had neither read the book nor seen the movie, but I knew that song was sad and dramatic, and I would crawl up on my chest or table (I don't remember which it was) and pretend that I was Charlotte dying, not knowing the Charlotte was a spider.

Later in high school I would do the same thing with the death scene at the end of Antony and Cleopatra. It sounds crazy, I know, but it always made me feel better when I was low. It helped that all of the lines near the end of the play are given to female characters.

Anyway, Charlotte's web was playing, and I remembered the scene from my childhood, and I thought--this is a little treat from God, reminding me of something I enjoyed as a child. And I remembered the words to "Mother Earth and Father Time."

Back to the point of the post.

They called Isaac back, and of course the first thing you do upon arriving the examining room, is you undress your child down to his or her diaper so that a weight can be taken. I did this, taking extra time to change Isaac's diaper because it was very full, all the while telling him how I wanted to be sure to get an accurate weight. The nurse and I proceeded to the scale. The reading came back at 6 lbs. 0 oz. I told the nurse, "That's not good. He weighed more than that when we left the hospital. He weighed more than that a week ago when we weighed him at the Breast Care Center. This is very, very bad." The nurse, who must have been new, said nothing. She gave me nothing back. Just went about the business of administering Isaac's PKU. I wanted to ask her to weigh him again, but if you know me very well you won't be surprised that I didn't. I spent the next however many minutes waiting for Dr. Brown looking down at my baby, wondering how this could have happened and what I was going to do about it. Should I make an appointment with a lactation specialist immediately? Should I call my mother and tell her she was wrong, that he wasn't growing, that he didn't weigh anywhere close to 7 lbs?

Denise came in, and we talked about Isaac's feeding. I told her what had happened with the scale, and that he weighed 6 lbs 8.5 oz less than a week ago. She reassured me that it didn't sound right, and so we took him out to try the scales again. This time a more experienced nurse told us that sometimes the scales got out of whack when the mother's weight was removed from the scale as babies are being placed on the cradle. She jiggled it up and down with her own weight to make sure the calibration held. Isaac's weight came back at 7 lbs 7 oz.

I should have known immediately that feeding every two to three hours with an abundant milk supply and very little spittage could not possibly result in a weight lost of 8.5 oz. I should have known, but I didn't. Looking at Isaac you can see that he is growing. His little cheeks are filling out, and he now had a distinct bottom. He's already grown out of some of my smallest onsies.

That was a pretty scary and tragic twenty minutes for me though.

The Birth Story, in Gory Detail (though not too gory I hope)

Notice what I say in the title of this post about gory detail. I would hide the rest of the article for those who do not wish to read it, but I don't know how to do that.

Saturday morning Michael and I moved quantities of frozen food from a deep freeze out in Coaling to one at another friend's house less than a mile away. Saturday evening Michael picked up the crib that John and Linda are loaning us to use with Isaac.

Anna Grace went shopping with me earlier on Saturday afternoon. It was the first chance we'd had to do anything together in a while besides cookie making at Cori's house the Tuesday before. At one point I told her I thought I might be having a contraction, but it's always been hard for me to tell throughout this pregnancy because not only have the been painless, but they've been few and far between.

That evening I noticed a hemorrhoid had developed, and I thought, "Damn that Starbucks. Every time I go there with Anna this happens."

Someone from Michael's office had given us a gift certificate to Longhorn Steakhouse on Friday. It was a long shot, but I asked Anna Grace before church Sunday morning whether she and Ben would be willing to sit with Parker for us so that Michael and I could go out. Typically when family lunch at the Bishop's has been canceled, Ben and Anna will try to have lunch with members of the youth group or their shepherding group, but this day they set aside their normal plans to let us go out. It was so nice for the two of us to be out alone together, even if only for a little while. Rarely do we have the opportunity for a date.

Damon came over to watch Hancock Sunday afternoon and he and Michael put the crib together that evening. I had gotten the mattress from Cori just that Tuesday.

Sunday evening Michael asked me if I could read to Parker and put him to bed. He could tell by looking at me, however, that I was tired and didn't feel up to it, so offered to go ahead and do it instead. Parker then requested that mommy read to him, something he never does, so I got to read to my darling in the evening before going into labor that night.

Normally I cannot sleep until Michael comes to bed, which he often doesn't do until 10:30 or 11:00. This evening he came to bed at 11:00 after checking in on Parker, and that's when it started. Literally. Michael got into bed, and I hopped out, thinking that I had just experienced the final indignity of pregnancy, a total loss of bladder control.

Beware gory details: I seriously thought that I had lost bladder control. It didn't matter that there seemed to be much more fluid involved than this could explain. I didn't bother to turn on the light in the bathroom, because at night I rarely do. I grabbed a sanitary napkin and tried to go back to bed. When I returned to the bathroom only moments later I noticed the napkin had turned pink, but I thought that was what it did when it got wet, having never used this particular brand before.

Then I became aware of the contractions. They were close, and they hurt, but I wanted to time them to be sure. I didn't want to be one of those women who goes into the hospital on a false alarm. We waited probably 45 minutes before even calling the hospital.

When Dr. Emig asked me if I'd had any unusual discharge I said I didn't think so. I didn't realize that what I was experiencing had anything to do with amniotic fluid.

Dr. Edwards had checked me the Wednesday before, and there had been no activity. He had told me Isaac probably wasn't going to be a Christmas baby, and to try to wait to have him until he was back in the office the following week. So far Dr. Edwards hasn't gotten to deliver either of my babies, but I think he's a great doctor anyway.

Dr. Emig told me she didn't usually have mother's come in unless they were in pain, and I assured her that I was. She told me to come on.

We arrived at the hospital at 1:3o Monday morning. I wanted an epidural. I didn't get one. Isaac was born at 2:58 a.m. Labor took a total of four hours.

When the nurse checked me I was three or four centimeters dilated. When the doctor admitted me I was five. They had trouble getting my blood sample, because veins that are usually easy to tap wouldn't bleed. The IV was difficult to establish. There was some other problem with one of the machines. The anesthesiologist didn't have time to get there.

I didn't call Jill because at first I didn't want to wake her up if this were nothing, and later because I didn't want to insult the nurses in attendance. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, because labor was so fast she probably wouldn't have been able to get there in time. I got to spend some time with her in the hospital anyway.

Delivery was hard, and it was painful, but it was fast, and the recovery was wonderful. I was able to walk around within hours, and the pain has been entirely manageable, apart from the headaches that recur from lack of sleep. I have stitches, but they have caused me fairly little discomfort.

Isaac is perfect, although his feet and hands remind me of a little bird's, long and often flexed at odd angles. He has very little body fat, and his knees stay bent much of the time. They tell me this is because he had very little room to move around prior to birth, although he was always a kicker from early on. The most uncomfortable aspect of pregnancy was how often he would catch me in the ribs.

We're still getting used to each other, but he seems to get a little cuter everyday. Even though he doesn't look a lot like Parker to me, there are things about him that remind me of Parker when he was that small. At some point I'd like to post pictures of both of them.

Timing-Provision/God has been Very Good

Isaac, gentleman that he is, waited to arrive until after Michael's immediate obligations as special events deacon at Grace had been fulfilled. He chose to come before my Dad had to commit to whether or not he would travel to New Orleans to lecture for the Marine Corp. He waited until after Michael and I had the opportunity to go to lunch alone together just that afternoon.

I have often been disappointed in thinking about the neat ways God hasn't provided for us and for our needs. He's never given me an automobile out of the blue (something I have always dreamed would happen). He's never given us a specific amount of money immediately before or after we have needed.

But here's what He has done.

We needed a baby bed and mattress for Isaac to sleep on. John and Linda are loaning us a bed. Cori has provided a mattress. We needed a place for Isaac to sleep until he's old enough to make it through the night without nursing, when he'll join Parker. Shelly bought us a bassinet for a dollar at a yard sale. We needed a cover for the bassinet. Elizabeth had that would fit.

The automatic breast pump I need to establish nursing has been provided without cost beyond it's use of electricity. Heather and Anna Grace were available without question to spend parts of the night with Parker the night Isaac arrived.

Isaac has diapers because Michael's office gave us a diaper shower the Friday before Isaac was born. Linda watched Parker while I got my driver's license renewed only the weekend before.

Anna gave me clothes to wear the last couple of months of my pregnancy. Isaac has clothes to wear because Laura and Tina and Elizabeth and others gave us their old ones. Isaac has his own new blankets thanks to Pam and others. My parents live close by so there was never any question of where Parker would stay while Michael and I were at the hospital with Isaac.

Our kitchen range was dying, and so Michael's parents helped us to purchase a new one over Thanksgiving. My parents have bought us groceries since Isaac has been here, as well as various household needs. My mom often buys me clothes when I need them and she's available to help me with the boys until I adjust to nursing with a two year-0ld in the house. Daniel and Shannon were able to be here the day Isaac arrived.

Our mortgage is low, which as been a tremendous help in coping with the rising costs of living. We get the dependant tax exemption for 2008 even though we had no expectation. God didn't exactly GIVE us a car, but in reality He did, because we were able to buy a mini-van this year from someone we know and trust, who provided a complete maintenance history and even had the oil changed and the tires rotated after the sales agreement had been made. Best of all, two car seats fit in it easily, which they never could have in our other car.

We have our own washer and dryer this time around to cope with the tremendous amounts of laundry a new baby generates.

Michael has been able to take time off work to be with me and Parker and Isaac with very little difficulty, and he's off again tomorrow for New Years.

How has God not provided for us?

He is good anyway, by the way, apart from anything He may or may not do for us. I have to tempt disaster and thank Him because this is His due.

Making Room

I think it is funny that while my mom is always telling me I should do something with my interior design degree, both she and Michael are better space planners than I am.

Michael is responsible for the only living room arrangement that has ever worked for us in our living room space. Yesterday my mom came over to help me get ready for Isaac. I had already done some rearranging of Parker's room, but she suggested a couple of additional changes. When Michael came home at the end of the day and saw what had been done in Parker's room he said, "Wow, this is a more efficient use of space."

It isn't perfect. My rocking chair is no longer next to the bookshelf, so choosing books at bedtime will be a little more tricky. And we still have to put some of Parker's toys into an organized rotation, but with the work my mom did yesterday, decisions about rotating toys are going to be a whole lot easier. Also, she found a way that we can keep the chest of drawers in Parker's room so I'll have some of the storage space I'll need with an even smaller child in the house.

I'm feeling better about fitting Isaac into our home.