Thursday, May 27, 2010

Nebulize THIS Momma

So the day has finally come. It took 3.5 years for the virus to break through all my defensive moves,  but Eric has his first bad chest cold. The doc gave one listen and said since he is not a chronic smoker she was suspect a virus had set it.

Once Eric turned 2 and we put him in day care with all the germ sharing  I new it would be inevitable but I also knew that his "preemie" start was behind him and his lungs were strong enough to take it and recover. I  had mentally prepared for these nasty colds toddlers are culprits for carrying. But some how he managed to dodge the respiratory germs until now which is pretty amazing considering most babies and toddlers have about ten colds a year.

I do feel a bit vindicated now for all the precautions I have taken because even as a tough and strong three year old he is still a former preemie and the doc could tell with a good listen to his lungs so I can only imagine what this would have been like had he gotten this when he was one or two. Ask anybody who tried to come withing twenty feet of my son.  Aside from being the hand-washing nazi, I practically required them to submit recent medical documentation that they were not sick!

We are treating his cough with albuterol that has to be administer through the "nebulizer". Oh, let the good times roll. Eric isn't a huge fan of the "nebulizer" as you might have guessed. Have you ever met a three year old who wants to sit still for ten minutes with a mask on their face. No, me either. We  have pulled out every reward we can think of. He turned down chocolate but being able to watch Handy Manny seems to get the job done. Mostly we have had to grab him, pin him on my lap with my legs and hold the mask to his face for TEN MINUTES. We get to have this fun at least three times a day for a week!



He is however getting more accepting of this and it is getting easier. He also gets a steroid medication. Now if you know Eric you know he doesn't ever stop moving. He is MR. Action. Now imagine Mr. Action on fast forward. This medicine jacks him up like I loaded him up with a "shot- in-the-dark" ( shot of espresso in a cup of dark roasted coffee). It is pretty amazing to see.

With all of this he is in pretty good spirits but who wouldn't be once you are breathing easier.

Of course brothers share everything and Noah caught this cold too. His biggest issue is post-nasal drip making him gag and worsening a mild case of reflux. Try as I did, it was impossible to keep Noah out of Eric's line of coughing and goopy nose. At least Noah is building his immunity before he has to go childcare.

All this has me thinking we should start having happy hour in this house because I could use the mellowing effect of a stiff drink! Chocolate seems to help though. Good new is everybody is feeling better and recovering quite well.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Eric the photographer

Have you noticed the Flickr photostream to the right of the screen. I put together a collection of streaming photographs taken by Eric. Some day he will be a famous photographer and I will be able to say "hey check out this amazing photo composition you had at 3 years old!"

A little known fact is that Momma was once obsessed with photography back in the day of film, developing, and dark rooms. Oh the fun we had goofing of in the art department dark room at Great Falls High. I always say I spent half my senior year in the dark between taking photos for yearbook (thanks Mr. Kirk for always post-signing my get-out-of-class-free-card to photograph something for yearbook;) What a sport!)and my hologram class. Yes, instead of physics I shot holograms, which by the way is all physics and geometry, neither of which I was good at by themselves. I continue to digress here by saying that it was between photography and nutrition when choosing a college major.

I am no photographer.

Here is a great picture Eric took of Noah

  and another abstract of Rollie, Scoop and Muck
 These are photos he took of himself. The red-eye flash went off and give him a tint. I think they are pretty cool photos:

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Strange looking ritual or mom-baby yoga?


Momma and Noah  just finished up a 4 week series of MomBaby yoga. While bringing Noah to yoga wasn't conducive to the most mind-body-busting yoga I have ever done,and as much as I wanted to jump into viniyasas,inversions, twists, and backbends it did have many benefits:


1) Practice getting out of the house and being somewhere semi on time

2) Time to giggle with the Noah and meet other moms and babies

3) Repair the muscle that pulls apart in the abs during pregnancy

4) Locate the obliques

5) Remember how to slow down and breath

6) Prevent me from jumping doing too much too soon

It was a great kick start but now that those classes are over Noah and I bond and giggle at home or in the park and I go to yoga for some internal time to get crazy and find peace all in the same 90 minutes.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Noah's first walk to the Golden Gate Bridge


He was just thrilled!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Chatting with the lil'monkey

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Where's Waldos?

Last weekend was the annual Bay to Breakers run in San Francisco so this is a very pertinent question for Eric to be asking. We took E & Noah over to Alta Vista Park & had lunch at the crepe place on Fillmore street. An entire community of people out of the estimated 70,000 runners dress up like Waldo making him fairly easy to spot. Eric was spotting Waldo all over the city all afternoon. While the run begins downtown at 8am it takes most of the day for many of those Runners (in costumes) to make it from the finish line at the beach back to their homes. So all over the city, far from the race route, in random places you may see Snow White, a man in chaps (and nothing else), 80's dressed jazzercisers, or Where's Waldo. We once saw a clown "resting" after the race on the pavement, feet dangling over the duck pond. Classic. Momma and Dadda have participated several times. You don't run for time. You run for the experience.

Eric was amazed that he could spot real life Waldo's everywhere when he is so difficult to spot in those darn books. I should have gotten pics of Wald but didn't. Instead here are some photos of our Bay to Breakers day activities at the park.


Sunday, May 09, 2010

I love the way you call me Momma

This is Momma's (that's me) first Mother's Day as a mother of not one, but two beautiful boys.
I am in awe every day as I look at there happy faces and watch them grow, their personalities emerge, that I have been the chance to bring them into this world and guide them along their paths.

Eric is three and a half .He is sweet, sincere, and imaginative. He is also ambitious, determined, head-strong, courageous, and speedy. He knows exactly what he wants and he goes after it after careful calculation.

Noah is now two and a half months. He is sweet and sensitive. He is calm and happy. He is 11 pounds 7 ounces and 22 inches. He has a good appetite and smiles at the sounds of our voices and at the smiles on our faces. His eyes are as big and bright as his brothers and I see so much familiarity in is face. I am going to be bold and say that he resembles me and sometimes I see expressions that mirror my mother's expressions.

Today, I caught Noah smiling and kooing at Eric. It made Eric so happy to get some attention from Noah. Eric smiled and giggled back at him. Of course it melted my heart. These boys are going to great pals.

For Mother's Day the boys surprised me with tomato plants and other seeds that we all planted together today. Eric and I spend a lot of time in our yard with our gardening gloves on and I have been wanting to plant tomatoes so this was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's day. Spending the putzing in the dirt in the yard was perfect. This on the heals of getting to go to yoga (by myself - not mom/baby yoga) yesterday AND get my hair done in the city. I was definitely spoiled this weekend.

When Eric was born our lives came to a screeching and sudden halt. I did NOTHING but pump milk and go to the hospital. I didn't listen to music, watch movies, go for runs, meet with friends, have guests over, go out to eat, go to the store, ride my bike.....nothing. There was nothing in our lives besides Eric, hospital, and - for Aaron- trying to work. When Eric was Noah's age we very slowly starting re-incorporated the things we loved back into our lives . Noah being born a blessed full-term big, healthy baby we are experiencing incorporating him into all we do. I must say this is a profound and welcomed difference. Noah gets to come along on the ride and hear so much laughter (from us and his brother) and be with parents  who aren't worn down from spending three stressful months prior in the hospital.

Eric is a beautiful miracle of a boy to have arrived at 26 weeks and 2 days and be the thriving little boy he is. Noah is a beautiful miracle to have achieved a goal of full term and be the health happy boy he is. I am filled with gratitude to have experienced both. I am a better mother because of these experiences, not letting the normal hard stuff (like being awake with both kids at 1:00am or Eric having ZERO interest in potty training) get me down because after all it is NORMAL; and as my wise sister-in-law and mother of three says when things seem tough, "It is just a phase and it will pass."  I also don't let the small stuff like "spilled milk" or even finger-nail polish on the rug get to me because, well, messes happen and they can be cleaned up. It's ok. In fact when Eric spills something now he looks at me and says "its ok" and I look right back at him say "it sure is!"

Thank you for this blessing of motherhood.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mama's!