LOVED Ones

Saturday, March 28, 2009

It's been an extremely eventful last few weeks for us and I have tons of things that I want to get around to sharing: Timmy's first time swimming, fun at the park, our trip to the philadelphia please touch museum, my horrible run-in with the IKEA customer service rep from hell, and funny interviews with katie (as the interviewer AND the interviewee).

But, before I get to all that (IF I get to all that) I want to unload a bit. It's been a rough 2 weeks with a lot of loss and a lot of bad news and it's made me sad: for our good friends, our family, and for myself.

Last week, Chris's best friend buried his father. I had only met him once myself, but my heart breaks for our friend. His father had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer on Christmas Eve and lost his battle 2 weeks ago. Our friend stayed with us a lot while his dad was in the hospital and we talked because talking helps. I went through a similar experience when I lost my dad to cancer and tried to be as hopeful as possible for him, all the while supporting him in his decision to take time off of work and spend every moment he could with his dad. I learned so much about his father at his funeral service. His children wrote such touching words to him. I left telling Chris that I was disappointed that I had never gotten to hang out with him because he sounded like a terrific person to know and hang out with. He had just retired this past fall - just a few months before his diagnosis.

The day after that funeral, we found out that the mother of 2 of our good friends from college had passed away. She had a heart attack. An amazing mother to 5 rowdy boys, she finally had a few granddaughters to round out the brood and had been looking forward to retirement this spring. I had met her a few times - she was so warm and friendly and treated us like part of the family.

To our friends - I am so sorry for your losses. I know you'll never even read this, but my prayers are with you and your families.

Last Friday my grandmother was taken to the hospital. We don't really know exactly what's happened other than that she may have had a severe reaction to an antibiotic. She is currently in a rehab facility, trying to relearn simple tasks. We are praying for her recovery, but at the same time still don't know what the cause is or whether recovery is possible.

In the midst of lots of running around, my aunt took off yesterday and today to get some extra visiting time with my grandmom, to help out with her laundry and to catch a breather. My mom called me Thursday morning to let me know that my aunt's father-in-law was being taken to the hospital. He had suffered a bleeding stroke during the night. I was even further saddened to find out that he passed early Friday. This may seem like a distant relation, but I consider my Uncle Chuck's parents to be like grandparents to me. My Aunt Renee (my mom's sister) and I are very close, she was my matron of honor in my wedding. She and my Uncle Chuck began dating when I was in elementary school and when they married, his family became just another extension of our already very large family. I grew up around his parents and love them so much. Mr. W will be missed by all of us. I was delighted to find out that he was able to pass on at least one of his organs to save someone else's life...but not really suprised because he was such a wonderful and generous person. He lived a happy life. My heart breaks for Mrs. W who has lost her mate of, I think I was told 57 years. My W cousins were extremely blessed to have this man as their grandfather and I am happy for them that they've really gotten to enjoy living with him the last year or so. My aunt was just telling me tonight about one of their jokes that developed after they started living together. I find myself a little jealous of their relationship, but so grateful to at least have had known him.

And as if all of this isn't enough grief, I found out yesterday that a dear friend is terminally sick. A group of us mom's from The Little Gym have become pretty close. After last Spring's semester we aren't all together in class anymore, but just this winter have all started getting together again. I have really enjoyed spending more time with our friend C and her little boy. We kind of only knew each other casually from McDonald's or Friendly's visits before class, but after this winter's get togethers, I was really excited to become closer. C is an AMAZING single mom. She decided to adopt from Guatamala and soon after the adoption found out that she had breast cancer. While caring for her new baby boy, she beat its ass - but just this week in a regular 6-month scan found out that she has stage 4 lung cancer. With out going into details - there is no treatment for her. She is left to enjoy the next few months with her 4 year old, the best that she can. This story sounds horrific just in hearing the facts, but to KNOW this woman and her little boy is where the pain really lies for me. She has a support structure, but on a day to day basis it's just the two of them and I never met another parent-child twosome more perfectly fit to one another. God definately fit them together. They both crack me the hell up and other than the fact that I know he's adopted and the little fact of them looking nothing alike on the surface - you just need to hear her tell a story about him or watch an exchange between the two of them to know he is her son through and through. I'm sad that I have just only gotten to know C. She is funny and warmhearted and a heck of a good time.

All of this makes me realize how much I take for granted. I am so greatful for my mom and family. I am greatful for my friends. I am greatful for my husband and I am SO greatful for my children. I'm not really sure what to make of all this happening - one on top of another. Is there supposed to be a lesson for me to learn? For some reason, when I was in high school I used to lay in bed at night scaring myself silly and questioning my mortality. I find myself there again. I have lived my life so far feeling like terrible things couldn't touch me or at least I don't expect it for a very very long time. Even though I felt the end was near as I turned 30, at 31 I have recently felt freshly young. After these few weeks, I'm back to pondering the big questions and I hate it!

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"Breaking" News

Monday, March 23, 2009

Timmy's sleep has gotten worse over the last few weeks and he's really been sleeping pretty terribly the last few days. For one, he's Mr. I Need to See Everything That's Going On during the day and seems to get very distracted when I nurse him then has been making up for it in the quiet of night when there're no distractions.

On top of that, crazy boy, he still won't sleep on his back but all night long he keeps flipping onto his back and then freaking out because he can't flip back AND he can't fall back to sleep that way. Either that, or he keeps wandering to side or corner of the crib and getting his arm stuck between the mattress and the rails.

Last night was by far the worse, though. He was up every 1 1/12 to 2 hours, from midnight on. At least I can usually count on him to take good naps....but not today. I have not been able to get him to sleep more than 1/2 hour at a time all day AND he's miserable. He just wants to nurse or look at me. My normally sweet-mannered boy has been crying and whining ALL day. It's so not like him.

I decided to go ahead and check around his mouth AGAIN and there it was...his first tooth has broken through the gum. His bottom right middle tooth is the first to make an appearance. So, he's currently doped up on baby tylenol and baby orajel watching tv in my bed with his sister and chomping the heck out of his toy.

Boy do I look forward to bedtime tonight. I may need to break out the liquor. (for me, of course!) That is assuming he GOES to sleep tonight. Isn't he due to just pass out at some point? How long can he possibly stay awake?!?!?

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There's No Place Like Home

Saturday, March 21, 2009

EXCEPT getting to go to Madison Square Garden to see the Wizard of Oz!!!!

I won my first blog giveaway ever, courtesy of Marinka. I woke up this morning to see a comment from Marinka in my in-box, and thought "OMG, OMG, OMG..." like a sixth grade girl who sees she has an e-mail from the boy she likes. (Heck, who am I kidding, I was like that when I first met Chris in college, too.) I couldn't believe she had visited MY blog. Then I was even more excited to read that I had won her giveaway. Btw, you should definately check in with her if you'd like to be in the running for Thomas the Train tickets.

I'm not sure what's better - the tickets or the fact that Marinka linked to MY blog to announce that I had won. (see..I have 10 followers and she has hundreds.)

I am thrilled to bring Katie to see this show because she is OBSESSED with the Wizard of Oz. I finally got her to watch it for the first time a few months ago and it was love at first site. "Darby" (her pronounciation of Dorothy) has become a fast favorite. I've got her convinced that the soundrack of Wicked is "her music" when we're driving because it's the nice witch and the mean witch singing. I even have the actual Wizard of Oz soundtrack about to be delivered by Amazon any day now. The funniest part of her obsession with the Wizard of Oz is the fact that she loves to play dressup as the nice witch or the mean witch -except that she doesn't have any actual Wizard of Oz dressup clothes so she improvises. She's usually the nice witch and makes her daddy be the mean witch. Here she is as the "nice witch" in January. It is a travesty for sure that I didn't capture a picture of him dressed up as the mean witch because it is definately a sight to behold.


P.S. On a totally unrelated subject...I think I may be pregnant again....I can't stop eating and all I want to do is sleep! (To clarify...that IS just a joke...I HOPE!!)

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TWO for TWOS-Day - Happy St. Patrick's Day

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Last night at gymnastics, I let Katie stay a bit after her class to watch the big girls. She loves staying later when we don't have Timmy with us and she pretends to do all the same warmups they're doing. One of the very nice moms asked me if I wanted an irish potato and I declined. She was wondering aloud what she was going to do with them all since many of the moms had declined. Katie had made them at school yesterday and got to have them for snack and bring some home so she knew how yummy they were. Her eyes lit up. I told the mom that Katie would LOVE to have one if she didn't mind. She then told me, oh - they have whiskey in them - just a teeny bit though. My response? Oh, that's fine - we're Irish Catholic - she'll sleep better. What's wrong with me? Why was that my response? I don't even know these women. She laughed and all the big girls' moms nodded. They all agreed that just a teeny bit of whiskey was fine for a 3 year old. They must be Irish Catholic, too.

If you have a TWO-some you'd like to show off today, make sure to stop by Eight is Great and let Deanna know.

I had to work hard to coax a smile out of Mr. Handsome today. He had his 4 month shots yesterday and is pretty sleepy today. (Oh, and speaking of which - Timmy is now 16 lbs 4 oz (75%) and 26 1/2 inches (92%). His head is still in the 4oth percentile - incidentally Katie's stats were almost exactly the same at 4 months). I didn't have to do ANY coaxing of Katie though. In fact, she was VERY excited to wear green today. I had given her dad her green t-shirt and jeans to dress her in today and I had a sobbing Katie come upstairs half way through the process because she needed "to wear green pants for St. Patrick's Day." We compromised. I let her wear green pants that do not match her green shirt as long as she broke it up with a jean skirt. She agreed (grudingly). When she was all dressed she patted herself all over and told me, "THERE mommy, I'm all beautiful now!"

(I think she's trying to point to her cool head band and awesome shoes - yes they ARE blue tie-dye imitation crocs.)

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Baby Picture Sunday - Go Green

Sunday, March 15, 2009

It's Baby Picture Sunday, and I just LOVE doing these pictures each week because it means I get to browse through my old photo folders and remember how cute my babies were.

Debi's theme this week is "Go Green" and I have no shortage of Katie dressed in green since it's my favorite color, but I know Debi REALLY wants us to show our kids dressed for St. Patty's Day. We were kind of tame for Katie's first St. Patty's day, but she has enjoyed getting dressed up more and more as the years have passed.

This first one is from 2007. It's not from actually St. Patty's Day, but I somehow missed getting her in her green shirt AND these cool glasses from Grammi and she's just too hilarious in these glasses not to share.

And here she is in her 2008 St. Patrick's Day outfit. This t-shirt is so cute and since Grammi bought it nice and big she actually got to wear it for 2 years already and might even get to squeeze into it again this year.


Since we love any excuse to wear green around here and to show off our baby pictures - this was a great theme this week. Make sure you stop by Who Says 8 is Enough? to see who else is playing along today.

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Computer issues - don't miss my last post!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

We were having some internet issues over the last few days, so my post about Timmy at 4 months just got done today...but is recorded as being done on Tuesday...SO if you link from a blogroll you won't see that I had a new one today...but I did, I did

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4 Months Old - Lots of Changes

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Timmy was 4 months old on Tuesday. He'll have his wellness visit this Monday coming up, but he's about 16 lbs right now. As I mentioned in my last post, Mr. Personality (aka Mr. Handsome) was being super goofy the other night and very much enjoying having his picture taken.

Over the last month Timmy has hit so many new milestones and brought many changes to our happy little schedule. At about 14 weeks, he laughed for the first time and when laying on his back stuck his legs up in the air at a 90 degree angle.

Then came the changes. My little guy went from waking up just once or even sleeping through the night to being back up every 2-3 hours and was super cranky every night from around 4-7. He also stopped throwing up quite so much. I've been eager to get him off the reflux wedge since he's almost outgrown it and last week figured well, if he's not sleeping anyway, may as well transition him now. So at about 16 weeks, he moved into in crib in his own room. After just one week in his crib he has rolled from back to side AND belly to side - still hasn't flipped all the way though. He's also spinning so his head ends up where his feet started out. In the same week, he mastered his head control. And right on his 4 month birthday he grabbed his toes when laying on his back and has begun to love playing with his own hands. So, now I'm thinking the sleep interuptions may be due to all these new things he was getting ready to do. He's still waking now, but after his big sleep from 7-12ish he seems to have toned it down to waking every 3 1/2 hours. Unfortunately, he still won't sleep longer than 30 min on his back so I have caved and am letting him sleep on his belly. I am a nervous reck about it as it relates to SIDS, but I know it's the only way he's going to get any sleep. He has slept on his belly since he was a few weeks old on the wedge and he has complete head control. He's also very close to rolling over, but I will feel much better about it when he IS rolling over.

He has really been enjoying his toys - anything he can hold on to and get in his mouth and he is really happy to play in his exersaucer (for a little bit at a time, anyway).
And while Timmy has been making all this progress, Katie has turned into a teenager. She is still quite enjoying picking out my clothes and arguing with me. Yesterday she was looking at a Valentine's day card that her Grammi and Grand-pop got her, telling me how much she likes it. I reminded her who it was from and she told me "AND my 3 cousins." (She differentiates between my sister's kids and Chris's brother's kids as her "3 cousins" or her "9 cousins") I told her it wasn't - it was JUST from her Grammi and Grand-pop. She looked at me, right in the eye, with most serious expression like I was the dumbest person on earth and told me, "Um, mom...I really really think you're wrong...I AM right." (To MY mom: I know you just LOVE these moments since they remind you so much of me growing up - but the difference is I am right now AND I was right then. To Katie: my darling - you are welcome to challenge me on a "gray" issue - but when it's a black and white issue, please count your losses and prepare yourself to hate my guts as you get older since you will rarely win against me.)

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TWO for TWOS-Day - Snuggling

Pretty hard to get both kids to look at me when they're getting the special treat of watching "Mommy's TV" (special as in almost every day - but they still love laying together in my bed). It totally cracks me up that Timmy is as engrossed as Katie.


Deanna is a little busy today to officially host Two for Twos-Day, but make sure you stop by her blog anyway just because she's great (and has a super beautiful family to boot).

Btw - these pics were just before Timmy turned into a super charming weirdo late yesterday afternoon. Make sure you stop by later tonight when I give his 4 month old update. YES - he is already 4 MONTHS OLD (today) and doing lots of fun new things!!!

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Friday Foto Finish Fiesta - A Cloudy Day...Goodbye Sunny!

Friday, March 6, 2009

This adorable little puppy came into our lives in November 2003 and miraculously these are the first digital pics taken after my Great Computer Crash of 2003 (when I lost ALL pics from June 2003-October 2003, including all honeymoon pictures). My mom had bought a house with my now step-dad Jim and they decided to have a baby together...of the canine variety. A pure-bred labrador retriever "with papers", Michelle's Sunshine was affectionately known as Sunny.
Sunny + our pool (and sprinkler) = Love at First Sight
We had the honor of dog sitting Sunny several times. He was always such a good dog and he and Lucky had SUCH a great time playing together!

Sunny got sick over a year ago. After almost losing him, he was diagnosed with a very dangerous disease - but a disease that was manageable with very expensive medication. He had bouts of sickness but had been doing really well. Wednesday night we went over my mom's house and were met with a playful Sunny running out to the car to meet us. Katie had a great time playing with him in the snow in my mom's backyard.

Last night, my mom called. She went down to let Sunny out and he didn't wake up from his nap. We have no idea what happened. He was stable on his medication, had been acting fine all day, and just the day before was being as playful as ever. He was only 6 years old. We are so sad.

I don't have any recent pics of Sunny, but of course it's probably not best to remember him with the "interesting" half buzz cut he received this past week :) We'll remember Sunny golden and regal, before he was sick at all...very sweet and such a good boy.
Check out Candid Carrie
today to see who else is sharing their Phantastic Fotos this week!

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Baby Picture Sunday - Fat Tuesday

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Yay - I'm back for Baby Picture Sunday. (No, I didn't go anywhere - just a little blogging break). This week, Debi wanted us to pull out any pictures we have to commemorate Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday.

We don't really celebrate Mardi Gras over in the other Bouf household - generally because it's busy season in the accounting industry and not really much to celebrate - HOWEVER - Katie did score some Mardi Gras beads from one of her grandmothers long ago. I don't remember which because I know she's conned both of them out of their beads in the past. I have pictures of her in them as far back as 2007, but they don't come cuter than this one.

Katie and Keith - Cutie Cousins - February 2008

Make sure you head over to Who Says 8 is Enough? to see who else is playing along this week.

You know, I was half tempted to post a picture of myself for "Fat" Tuesday ;). But since I didn't, here's a little story at my expense:

Yesterday we were getting ready for the birthday party of one of Katie's classmates and she told me that she was going to pick out my shirt. I immediately laughed and told her I didn't think so. I put on a new shirt that I had just gotten and was nice and loose and she told me "No, you are NOT wearing that Mommy. I do NOT like that shirt." I didn't feel like dealing with her so I decided to change anyway. Of course, she led me to every blue shirt in my closet to change into. I put one on and she told me, "Oh, I love it mommy; I really, really love it!" I then told her sorry that I was too fat and I had to wear something else. I showed her where it was too tight and told her I couldn't wear it that day. The pants I was wearing weren't helping the fit. So here is the rest of the conversation:

Me: Katie, I can't wear this shirt. Mommy's too fat.

Katie: No, you're not fat mommy.

Me: (sighing) Yes, I am..see right here..my belly is sticking out too much. I need to wear a different shirt.

Katie: Ohhhh, why are you so fat mommy? (and then something uncomplimentary about her daddy's physique).

Me: Because I've been eating too much. (Not to mention the fact that 2 c-sections have completely redistributed all my weight to my gut and well, I'm feeling especially bloated today...but I didn't think she'd understand all that.)

Katie: (speaking to me like she's disciplining me) Mommy, STOP eating so much.

Me: Oh, ok, Katie.

Katie: My belly is so fat, too. I need to stop eating, too.

Me: Ah, Katie. You're belly is perfect. You're not fat.

Katie: Yes it IS, right HERE (pointing to her belly that she is now sticking out as far as possible).

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