First Snow and First Stitches (Almost)

The boys have been waking up excruciatingly early lately. Like the 6:00 hour. Which is way too early for this mama. Anyway, I was half asleep on the couch one morning and they were happily playing until the sun came up. Then I started hearing them repeatedly yell, "It's SNOWY TIME!" 

Then Eli ran past me trying to get his coat on and asking where his gloves were and I was completely confused by his sudden interest in winter attire. Then Eli informed me it was snowing. I jumped off the couch in unbelief to see for myself. It still seemed way too early for the first snowfall. Sure enough the ground was dusted white and little flakes were falling from the sky.

I convinced the boys to just watch the snow out the window until at least 7:30, and then their patience had run dry and they demanded to be out playing in the flurries.

As soon as we went outside, Eli plugged in the Christmas lights. He's been waiting all month for it to snow because he's been associating snow with Christmas. 

The 7 AM snow playing was luckily quick because the air was brisk with the sun barely out for the day.

We tried again later in the afternoon with a few extra layers on and a little more snow covering the ground. Eli's idea of playing in the snow is shoveling the driveway. He loves putting himself to work on anything he's ever seen Jeff do.

Carson was in for the fun as well.

I'm not a big hot chocolate drinker, but after spending the morning out in the cold on the first snowy day of the year, hot chocolate just seemed like the right thing to do when we got inside and needed to be warmed up.

I handed the boys their hot chocolates and a handful of marshmallows. Then Eli caught me by surprise by asking, "Mom, can I put all my marshmallows in my coffee?"

What?????? After much probing, I could not weasel out of Eli where he had heard about coffee, but I did take the opportunity to give Eli his first lesson on the Word of Wisdom as we finished up our hot cocoa.

Last Monday I started getting a scratchy throat and by Wednesday I had completely lost my voice. Like totally and completely. I only spoke out of absolute necessity and when I did, I could only speak in a whisper.

With the winter weather and my sickness keeping us locked in the house all week, I used my pent up energy one day to make a nice dinner and bake my first pumpkin-y treat of the season. The boys were in the kitchen with me and we were jamming out to some prematurely played Christmas music (which I am usually opposed to, but made an exception for the sake of my pumpkin dessert), and we were all having a great afternoon in the kitchen.

Until...BAM!

Carson had reached over the counter to grab something and as he was getting his footing back on his chair, he missed and fell straight to the ground. Well. Not quite straight to the ground because the bottom of his chin slammed into the counter on the way down. I've become an expert in deciphering Carson's spills. I can immediately take into account the height he fell from, the speed at which he fell and the body part that first smacked the ground to tell if he will either A) hop right up, B) come away uninjured but need a hug or C) need medical attention.

Due to the height of the fall and the smack on the way down, I was definitely anticipating a C situation when I bent down to assess the damages. Sure enough, he had blood SPURTING out of his chin. Okay not really spurting, but his chin was bleeding and it wasn't pretty.

I kept my cool and tried to calm Carson down as I inspected the wound. It wasn't too wide, but it was pretty deep. His chin had split open with the fall, and I had heard of two other kids in our ward who have had similar injuries and both required stitches, so I gave Jeff a quick call.

Only to remember I didn't have a voice.

I tried to explain to Jeff over Carson's screaming that Carson may need stitches, but I wasn't sure. Jeff came home to see for himself if I was just being dramatic or if the situation really called for a medical professional.

I have lived my whole motherhood life trying my hardest not to be that mom who takes her kids into the doctor over every cough, scratch and runny nose. Mostly because we have to pay full price for those doctor visits, but also because I just hate going into the doctor and having the nurses look at me like I'm THAT mom.

So I kept assessing Carson's chin and trying to determine what constituted stitches. I eventually broke down and called the doctor as it was nearing 5:00 and I didn't want to miss our opportunity to get him stitched up if that was what we needed to do.

And then I remembered I didn't have a voice.

I raspily tried to explain my situation to the first person I talked to. She transferred me over to a nurse and I had to reexplain myself. Then she transferred me over to the after hours nurse so I could for a third time whisper out the events of our afternoon. It was a very unfortunate day to not have a voice.

Finally, after just wanting an answer to the question "What constitutes needing stitches?" I got the reply, "Well is it a scratch or a gaping wound?" I could sense judgements from the nurse of thinking I was one of the overreactive moms I have lived my life so vigorously trying not to be. "Well it's definitely more than a scratch, but I don't know if I'd call it gaping." I replied. "Better bring him in just to be safe."

Jeff got home just after that and as Jeff was inspecting the wound, Carson kept looking up and with each upward motion of his head, the sore would split completely open and we decided he needed to be seen.

Jeff took Carson into the doctor and I stayed home with Eli. Luckily the doctor was able to glue his split chin closed so we walked away from the whole incident without stitches. But I have a feeling this whole experience was only a sign of things to come...especially after we add a third rowdy boy to the mix!

Did He Just Say...?

Eli decided (after a little prompting from Jeff) that he needed to write a letter to Santa so Santa will know what to get him for Christmas this year.

Today Eli sat down to try to draw some of the items on his list. However, he's never been much of a draw-er, so I was anxious to see his attempts to pull Rescue Bot action figure depictions out of thin air.

He sat with the marker and paper and immediately got frustrated. "Mom! I don't know how to do Christmas stuff."
"You can do it." I encouraged.
"Can you just ask Teri how I should draw Christmas stuff?" He proposed.
"What? Who is Teri?"
"She's the one who knows all the stuff about everything. Especially Christmas stuff." He matter-of-factly responded.
"But who is she?" I asked again.
"She's in your phone." He said.
"She's in my phone?"
"Yeah. She's the one you talk to when you need to know something."

And then it hit me. "Ooooooohhhh! Do you mean SIRI?!?"
"Yeah. Siri. She'll know how to draw Christmas things. Will you ask her for me?"

I did not ask Siri. But I did laugh uncontrollably for approximately 5 minutes. The unexpected surprises of raising children in the age of technology.

Halfway

Would you like to hear how my last doctor's appointment went? I thought so.

They sit me down. Take my blood pressure. Everything checks out. Have me go use the facilities. With Carson in tow. I ask Carson if he also (a month into potty training, hasn't had an accident since his first week of learning to use the bathroom) would like to use the facilities. He said no. We exit.

Carson gets fidgety while we wait for the doctor, so I offer my phone. He accepts. The doctor walks in. Carson stands up and says, "I need to go potty." Just as I'm in the middle of saying, "Do you really need to go right now?" I immediately see it is an urgent matter. 

I jumped off the table thing and...get this...cupped my hands around his leg in an effort to minimize the damage to the carpet. It was very ineffective. The doctor awkwardly still tried to talk to me about my third child. While probably questioning my competence with my current children.

The doctor and I look at each other like, "Ummmmm....what do we do here?" Then the doctor gave me a few paper towels to soak up the puddle on the carpet. Then he tried to reassure me by stating this doctorly take on things, "You know, I used to be really grossed out by urine. Until I discovered it is actually sterile as long as there isn't a bladder infection."

"...Well...Let's hope he doesn't have a bladder infection then." I replied with a bright red face. And then the doctor left the room. And that was my total checkup. But it did provide me with a most embarrassing story to share for years down the road, so I am forever indebted to Carson for that.

What else? You know how there are those things about pregnancy/childbirth that people never tell you about? And then when it happens to you you're like, "Why did no one tell me about this?" I just remembered one of those things as I was cleaning up shattered glass all over my kitchen last week.

Pregnancy makes me SO clumsy! Now, I can't site the science behind the phenomenon, but it's a real thing. In one of my more clumsy days, I dropped a bowl of ravioli all over the floor, then spilled a cup of water all over the table, then splattered a cake mix I was making all over my shirt and then I broke the glass bowl I mixed the cake batter in as I was trying to put the bowl away. This was all in a matter of two hours. It's a joke!

And now you've been warned so you can't say no one told you.

Another weird thing is I have had major restless legs at night. If I go on a walk or workout it's not too bad, but if I don't then my legs go nuts at night.

My heartburn has kind of gone into remission but will flare up about once a week.

I think I've had some minor Braxton Hicks this week for the first time this pregnancy.

He is super active at night! Jeff felt him for the first time at around 20 weeks. It's so fun to be able to feel him often now.

Eli is really excited to have a baby brother. We checked out a book from the library about a  girl whose parents had a baby and she kept saying that babies are the worst. Every time there was any mention of a baby being annoying, Eli would look at me and say, "I love babies!" or laugh and say, "Babies aren't the worst! Babies are cute!" It is going to be so fun to see him with a new baby sibling.

And then there is Carson. Ha. I am just praying Carson is getting the bulk of his crazy twos out right now so that he will be mildly more tame once we throw a third one into the mix. He has his sweet moments with the baby too though. At least once a day he asks if there is a baby in my belly, and then he will request that the baby be named Baby Mario. I fear he may be legitimately mad when he finds out we are not actually naming the baby Mario.

We're so excited to meet #3!

Fallow-Up

Did you appreciate my lame attempt at a pun in the title? Everyone had better comment on it because you know how hostile I get when you don't acknowledge my mediocre attempts to be clever and witty. 

Here's what we've been up to this fall! Nesting has set in for me big time. As soon as we found out baby #3 was another boy, I've been scrubbing down the baby room and decided the room could use a total makeover. First project has been sanding down and repainting the crib! You wouldn't believe the teeth marks and spit up stains that two babies can splatter on one crib. It was a mess, but luckily I had some boys willing to help with the job!

The job isn't quite completed yet, so stay tuned for an inevitable nursery reveal a few months down the road.

We had stake conference a few weeks ago at the Tabernacle in Ogden. It was so neat to get to go there for our conference. The boys were SOOOOOOOOOOO good for exactly a sacrament meeting's worth of sitting still. Once the 1 hour and 15 minute mark was reached, their patience and reverence was at its limit. It all went awry when Carson said he had to go to the bathroom and saw all the kids out in the lobby running around and having fun. There was no getting him back in his seat after that. And then Eli was quick to follow.

These boys are either 100% best buds or mortal enemies. Lately they have really taken to using their time strapped in the stroller to bond and reinforce their brotherly love. One day they spent the majority of our walk hugging each other and giggling all along the way. They're so cute when they aren't at each other's throats.

Carson just learned to wash his own hair. When he has gotten all the soap out of his hair I give him a thumbs up since he can't hear me. Then he gives me one back.

Carson kept requesting muffins the day after Halloween. Since we hadn't had muffins in the house in months, I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. Then he pointed to a Reese's in his Halloween candy and it suddenly all made sense.

The boys miraculously perfectly merged their schedules onto the correct time with Daylight Savings which was awesome because that never happens. The not so awesome part is their schedules consist of waking up in the 6:00 hour no matter what extensive measures we've tried to get them to sleep in longer. This means some days we have no choice but to escape to Grandma's house to give us something to do. And luckily the day we needed an escape was Grandma's birthday, so we spent the day singing her several off-key renditions of "Happy Birthday."

When the boys aren't mauling each other with hugs on our walks, they are still doing this old move with every fence we pass:

I have always been jealous that little girls will sit and color. Or craft. Or just plain sit still. Eli has NEVER been into coloring. I have spent many years now trying to get him to spend a few minutes with a crayon and a piece of paper, but he has no patience for it. Until recently.

It all changed when I bought him a Transformers coloring book. Now he will sit still for 30 minutes at a time meticulously shading Bumblebee and Optimus Prime in the correct colors. It's his new favorite activity!

Homemade pizza has become a weekly activity in our house lately. The boys don't often care about helping me cook dinner, but it's all hands on deck for pizza night!

Instagrepeat Alert -- Jeff put on Christmas music while we were making the pizza, so Carson busted out a Home Alone impersonation.

After a typical month long sleep strike from Carson after we transitioned him into a bunk bed, we finally have him back on a schedule and he is taking naps for us again! Yay! Buuuuuuut. That means he won't go to bed until 8:30-9 at night. Since Eli is in bed every night by 7, Carson gets a good hour or two every night to have complete control over all the toys and both his parents.

Jeff and Carson have a nightly ritual of building a train track together.

And if they're not building trains, Carson is making Jeff draw him a very specific picture. Jeff once drew Carson a picture of a house with a cat and a dog and a fence, airplane, clouds, mountains...it was a very good, detailed picture. Now Carson requests that exact picture be drawn every time a pen is in the same vicinity as Jeff.

I have a small obsession with making the boys matching ties. Especially now that we need a few sets of three to be able to pull out in a few months! Until the boys vehemently object, I will forever put them in matching outfits because it's only the cutest thing that ever was.

Uh oh. I feel my Georgian roots coming out...HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!

Painting Pumpkins

"I don't want to deal with the mess of carving pumpkins!" I told myself. "The boys don't know how to use knives (safely), and I just mopped the floor. Let's paint our pumpkins this year." 

And so we did.

And that is when I learned that painting pumpkins does not prevent any of the mess of dealing with a pumpkin related holiday tradition.

So we gave in and sliced the bigger two pumpkins open. Mostly because you can't roast pumpkin seeds if you plan to only paint a pumpkin.

Plus every two-year old deserves the opportunity to dive into a fresh batch of pumpkin guts.

We left the carving to the adult supervision.

With eager minors looking on.

And luckily we had a birthday candle on-hand to see how they glowed once lit.

Then it was my turn to rediscover I lack any sense of artistic ability.

This started as a ghost. Then turned into a spider. Then became a typical jack-o-lantern face, then morphed into a cat. A black cat in the name of Halloween spookiness.

Before we knew it, it was Halloween day. I'll let you guess how long Eli wore the full costume I slaved so many hours over.

Juuuuuuuuuuuust long enough to get this picture taken of him:

And then he ripped it off to go trick-or-treating. I had a feeling that would happen, but I convinced myself the headlights would motivate him to keep the full ensemble on in the dark. Twas not the case. But Carson's costume was a big hit! He even got special treats at some people's houses because he was dressed so cute! I'll take it!