These are a few of my (recent) favorite things.
Chai lattes - These used to gross me out cause it felt like I was drinking sweet soup - blech. Now, they're the fragrant, warm, foamy, spicy, smooth treat serving as autumn in a cup. I can't get enough.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills - This is sheer television delight at it's tawdry best. The mansions are extravagant and gorgeous. The drama is predictable and so easy to solve from my living room couch. The women are all a little alien like and reaffirm my mantra that daily sunscreen is a must. And it's somewhat comforting to see these people with the world at their fingertips, fantastic success, all the treats money can buy (literally) and yet they're not quite content. I'm not sure about how the other "Real Housewives" series are, but this one is definitely worth checking out.
"Up on the Ridge" by Dierks Bentley - This song and it's video remind me of a party I went to in high school. It was at Carina Feebus' house, and we had to walk across a field, behind the barn and through this patch of woods before we got to the bonfire that was set up next to the creek. There were friends, laughter and plenty o' flirting along with the smell of cold night under a indigo sheet of sky punched with silver stars. DB's song with it's marching beat and honkey-tonk instruments grooving to the smooth vocals is an invigorating shout out to youth, patriotism, and country.
New jeans - It took this mom 6 months to brave shopping for jeans after baby was born, and granted the ones I bought are two sizes bigger than what I wore before I got pregnant, but oh, the sweet feel of crisp new denim hugging the booty and a waistband stopping well below my belly button rather than a span of lycra making every inch of my torso sweat is heavenly.
Blogs that are awesome - Here are the three that when a new post pops up, I smile. "Girls gone child" is just cool. I find the majority of "mom" blogs obnoxious, but this one is written by a girl you actually want to be friends with. Plus, she gives occasional fashion and beauty tips that are easy to adopt. "Smitten Kitchen" has the most delicious recipes and her pics are fantastic. Absolutely makes me want to get into my kitchen and get creative. "1000 Awesome Things" is simply that. It's different snapshots of life, like perfectly stapling through a thick stack of papers or being slobby in a hotel room, that every time they occur put the awe in awesome.
Switching my winter & summer wardrobe - Every year I make myself put my favorite items for each season into storage until they're realistically ready to wear again. Not imaginarily. Realistically. No, Megan, as much as you love that cable knit v-neck sweater, you are NOT going to wear it with jean shorts during the summer to an evening softball game like the girl in the Urban Outfitters catalog. While it's a bit sad to put my favorite pieces into those big tupperware bins, it is a treat to unpack them again 6 months later. Plus, I get to purge the old & unwearable and either trash it or give it to my sissy so she can then flaunt her perfect size 2 body in my clothes. That's always greeeeeeat. Still, the idea of getting a newish wardrobe twice a year and reorganizing my closet is one of my faves.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The fall
I saw it happening, but my mind wouldn't register the reality of the situation. I was reaching through the side door on the drivers side to get my purse that was wedged in between the front passenger seat and the seat holding Israel's car seat base, and I happened to glance up and catch what looked like a doll rushing past the open door space where Ryan was getting Israel and his car seat out. It was strange cause the doll was wearing the same orange colored romper that Israel was wearing and it had really similar hair. I didn't hear a thud, but I did hear my husband swear and say, "Oh my god, I dropped him. He wasn't strapped in, oh my god, I dropped him!"
We had come to Fred Meyer to pick up a few groceries. Had I left the house a moment earlier, Ryan wouldn't have been with us, but he happened to pull into the driveway just as I was backing out, so he parked his car and hopped in for the quick trip. When we got parked we spoke really quick about pulling Izzy out of his car seat and placing him in the shopping cart, so Ryan opened up the door behind the passenger seat and unstrapped Izzy to pull him out. He then mentioned it'd probably be better to have him in the stroller, so rather than pull Izzy out, he unhooked the entire car seat in order to place it in the stroller. Whether it was the momentum of him heaving up the seat, or Izzy leaning forward or a combination of both, Israel toppled from his the seat, and fell fast, smacking the concrete and landing flat on his back and head.
We rushed to the hospital, I was driving and Ryan was holding a screaming, crying Israel in the back seat. As scared as I was, Ryan was much more so, and I found myself repeating to him "Calm down, it's going to be ok, keep him awake" as Ryan continued to say Israel's name and hug him with tears streaming down his own cheeks. We pulled into the ER parking lot, Ryan hopped out with the baby and I quickly parked and ran inside. We were in to be examined within 2 minutes. The gal asked us a few questions, checked out the knot on the back of Israel's head that was rapidly growing to be the size of an adult index finger, and then sent us back to the waiting room.
That was the scariest part because as we were waiting, Israel began throwing up. And throwing up, and throwing up, and throwing up. It couldn't be stopped, I was completely covered in vomit, and the poor baby lost in a sea of confusion and pain couldn't help but cry that much harder. We were summoned pretty quickly back into the ER where we were treated by a really kind doctor that said we were going to get a CT scan just to be sure there was no internal bleeding. I have to praise the staff at Three Rivers because within 90 minutes of the accident we were in an ER room, with a CT scan completed and our pediatrician had come by to take a look at Israel.
Izzy kept fading in and out of sleep, but when he was awake he just wasn't himself. His cry was different, it sounded almost disconnected, like it was out of reflex rather than reason. He couldn't keep his eyes focused on anyone, and if he did, there was zero recognition in his face.
His CT scan results came back with zero harm done to his brain but a slight skull fracture. The good thing about the fracture was that it could easily heal itself. Our pediatrician recommended to feed him for a minute and see if he was able to keep it down. He wasn't. Ryan ended up covered in baby puke as well, so we decided to stay overnight.
The turn in his demeanor happened around 6:30. The nurses attempted to give him an IV, but his teeny veins wouldn't allow it. Not that they gave up easily. After a day of hearing him scream in pain, you'd think I was jaded to it, but he did not like them tightening that band around his forearm and thigh. It's almost like that moment of trauma woke him up though cause afterwards he was alert and aware of who Ryan and I were. He was making great eye contact and even laughing occasionally. I was so happy that I wanted to pass up staying the night, but Ryan still thought it'd be a good idea so we were shuttled up to our room (which was awesome), shown how to use the bed and crib (which could have slept Ryan comfortably) and left with our family.
Izzy nursed great about 10 minutes after we got to our room, and he didn't gag or show signs of nausea whatsoever. He fell asleep soon afterward and slept for a few hours, then woke up, fed again and this time slept 'til 5:30 this morning.
A couple posts back I wrote about how much I've prayed in 2 Timothy 1:7: "The Lord has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind". Our Lord is an incredible God that answers prayer because throughout this entire situation if there is one emotion I didn't feel it was fear, and if there was one overwhelming emotion it was that of a sound mind.
I will never be able to express how much the prayers and words of encouragement sent our direction meant. I absolutely believe that the reason Izzy doesn't have any permanent damage is because of the onslaught of prayer that covered our family in the hours following his accident. Ryan and I were talking about how it happened and angels must have cushioned his head because he fell a long way and he fell hard. But the way that he has come of of this situation is miraculous and we will be forever grateful to our wonderful friends and family and mostly to our King.
We had come to Fred Meyer to pick up a few groceries. Had I left the house a moment earlier, Ryan wouldn't have been with us, but he happened to pull into the driveway just as I was backing out, so he parked his car and hopped in for the quick trip. When we got parked we spoke really quick about pulling Izzy out of his car seat and placing him in the shopping cart, so Ryan opened up the door behind the passenger seat and unstrapped Izzy to pull him out. He then mentioned it'd probably be better to have him in the stroller, so rather than pull Izzy out, he unhooked the entire car seat in order to place it in the stroller. Whether it was the momentum of him heaving up the seat, or Izzy leaning forward or a combination of both, Israel toppled from his the seat, and fell fast, smacking the concrete and landing flat on his back and head.
We rushed to the hospital, I was driving and Ryan was holding a screaming, crying Israel in the back seat. As scared as I was, Ryan was much more so, and I found myself repeating to him "Calm down, it's going to be ok, keep him awake" as Ryan continued to say Israel's name and hug him with tears streaming down his own cheeks. We pulled into the ER parking lot, Ryan hopped out with the baby and I quickly parked and ran inside. We were in to be examined within 2 minutes. The gal asked us a few questions, checked out the knot on the back of Israel's head that was rapidly growing to be the size of an adult index finger, and then sent us back to the waiting room.
That was the scariest part because as we were waiting, Israel began throwing up. And throwing up, and throwing up, and throwing up. It couldn't be stopped, I was completely covered in vomit, and the poor baby lost in a sea of confusion and pain couldn't help but cry that much harder. We were summoned pretty quickly back into the ER where we were treated by a really kind doctor that said we were going to get a CT scan just to be sure there was no internal bleeding. I have to praise the staff at Three Rivers because within 90 minutes of the accident we were in an ER room, with a CT scan completed and our pediatrician had come by to take a look at Israel.
Izzy kept fading in and out of sleep, but when he was awake he just wasn't himself. His cry was different, it sounded almost disconnected, like it was out of reflex rather than reason. He couldn't keep his eyes focused on anyone, and if he did, there was zero recognition in his face.
His CT scan results came back with zero harm done to his brain but a slight skull fracture. The good thing about the fracture was that it could easily heal itself. Our pediatrician recommended to feed him for a minute and see if he was able to keep it down. He wasn't. Ryan ended up covered in baby puke as well, so we decided to stay overnight.
The turn in his demeanor happened around 6:30. The nurses attempted to give him an IV, but his teeny veins wouldn't allow it. Not that they gave up easily. After a day of hearing him scream in pain, you'd think I was jaded to it, but he did not like them tightening that band around his forearm and thigh. It's almost like that moment of trauma woke him up though cause afterwards he was alert and aware of who Ryan and I were. He was making great eye contact and even laughing occasionally. I was so happy that I wanted to pass up staying the night, but Ryan still thought it'd be a good idea so we were shuttled up to our room (which was awesome), shown how to use the bed and crib (which could have slept Ryan comfortably) and left with our family.
Izzy nursed great about 10 minutes after we got to our room, and he didn't gag or show signs of nausea whatsoever. He fell asleep soon afterward and slept for a few hours, then woke up, fed again and this time slept 'til 5:30 this morning.
A couple posts back I wrote about how much I've prayed in 2 Timothy 1:7: "The Lord has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind". Our Lord is an incredible God that answers prayer because throughout this entire situation if there is one emotion I didn't feel it was fear, and if there was one overwhelming emotion it was that of a sound mind.
I will never be able to express how much the prayers and words of encouragement sent our direction meant. I absolutely believe that the reason Izzy doesn't have any permanent damage is because of the onslaught of prayer that covered our family in the hours following his accident. Ryan and I were talking about how it happened and angels must have cushioned his head because he fell a long way and he fell hard. But the way that he has come of of this situation is miraculous and we will be forever grateful to our wonderful friends and family and mostly to our King.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
6 months already?
Israel's about 6 1/2 months at this point, and he's starting to do so many things independently. He can sit up on his own, he's eating some solid foods, if he could only run to the grocery store for me, I'd applaud these advances in his little person, but it's a funny mix of accomplishment and sadness that accompany each milestone. I'm one of those fearful moms that think sometimes he's not going to advance to the next stage. That I'm going to be THAT mom with the boy that's 6 years old and can't walk or talk. Ridiculous - yes, but again, this mom thing has proven to me that hormones are serrrrrrious. So, whenever Israel begins to show advancement in an area, I'm relieved, but at the same time, I know that with each day that passes, he's growing farther and farther from physically needing me. Yes, he'll need my emotional and spiritual guidance from here 'til forever, but there's something about his physical need for me that's very fulfilling. I know it's selfish of me, but the whole children thing is really pretty narcissistic in my opinion anyway.
Oh my...looking at my little nugget right now as he naps so contentedly on our bed...being a parent is the most incredible blessing. I look forward to the next 6 months bringing on the changes and challenges that will surely be conquered and learned from. It's hard to believe that it was only 6 months ago that I first held him and in another 6 months he'll probably be walking around on his own. Time does fly by, but it's the sweetest ride.
Oh my...looking at my little nugget right now as he naps so contentedly on our bed...being a parent is the most incredible blessing. I look forward to the next 6 months bringing on the changes and challenges that will surely be conquered and learned from. It's hard to believe that it was only 6 months ago that I first held him and in another 6 months he'll probably be walking around on his own. Time does fly by, but it's the sweetest ride.
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