Stellan

How do I even begin?

Stellan, precious little one-year-old Stellan who belongs to MckMama, went into surgery today. There was some major scares in there. His heart stopped this morning - we're talking a flat line! His blood pressure was nearly non-existent. His surgeons couldn't get one of his catheters (towards his heart) in through his groin, so they had to "improvise". In fact, during his surgery it was a Hail Mary Pass that ended up working in the end.

Stellan is alive and well! His extra pathway (what causes his SVT - supraventricular tachycardia) has been completely destroyed and his AV node is without a scratch. If his AV node had been destroyed, which was a real possibility, Stellan would have needed a pacemaker for the rest of his life.

But INSTEAD... he's perfect! He's still sick - mostly repercussions of the last 24hours of SVT - so keep him in your prayers. And it's not like this is Bang, The End, All Over for sure - but it is the absolute best possible outcome to today's events!

My words are few

Precious Stellan, who just turned 1 last week, is going in for his 2nd ablation early tomorrow morning. This was planned, sort of. There was a plan in place, but Stellan's finicky, stubborn heart threw a curve ball. His Tuesday surgery, is now early Monday morning. Please keep Stellan, MckMama, Prince Charming, and their other three children in your prayers.

I don't think my blog needs any more words than these tonight.

More coming

I shot my first wedding today.

The bride & groom - Andreina & Kary - understood they were getting two amateur hobbyist photographers. So that's good. I know we *caught* all the important shots. Now time will tell if we have *caught well* all the important shots.

Andreina wants to do her own editing, so I have a copy of the files unedited and ready to go. But in the meantime, my copies are getting tweaked! :)

Good question!

Sgt and Mrs Hub said...

Girl. How are you still alive and walking after keeping those kind of hours?!
I am super glad that Oceana doesn't have chicken pox... hope she remembers how to sleep!
I think with all that you earned a NaBloPoMo pass...

-Andrea

NOVEMBER 7, 2009 1:57 PM

Starbucks Milk Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans. They may not be a healthy way to survive on no sleep--but it's certainly effective! Melody, my dear sweet friend and sister, you are my HERO for sending these this week. They arrived the day these sleep shenanigans began. :)

#1 NaBloPoMo Handslap

Yup, I missed my first day.

Strange though, because I was composing in my head while cleaning the kitchen last night. I had every intention of doing it. I guess I got distracted by Wild Hogs & We Are Marshall. We were part way through We Are Marshall when Naomi woke up. *Sob*...

I guess it's safe to say it now - we thought Oceana had chicken pox. On Wednesday I took the girls to Stretch & Grow - it's the teen mom's program at our church that I help out with.

She was fine when we got there, but within a half hour she was acting funny. She's usually a happy-go-lucky, ultra-excited kid, but that day she wanted to sit in my lap and whine. She asked me repeatedly to go home in fact. If you know Oceana in real life, you'll know that's something you never hear!

She didn't have a fever, but certainly was acting sick. I asked her at some point if she wanted to go sleep in the stroller. Shocker, she said yes! I would have gone home, but I was having a meeting after the group, so I really needed to stay. She continued to be fussy, even falling asleep on the couch in the reception area of the church for about half an hour.

A friend mentioned that chicken pox were going around, and I remembered a few red bumps I had seen that morning getting her dressed. *Panic!*

*The chicken pox/Varicella vaccine isn't offered in New Zealand, so Oceana hasn't had it. Even if it were, I don't think I'd opt for it.*

All I could think was, "Great! I've been stuck home alone for 2 weeks, and now I'll be stuck for 2 more!"

Wednesday she slept all afternoon. But this meant that she slept 8:30-4 overnight. She stayed awake from 4, but fell asleep at 11am on Thursday. She slept on and off all afternoon Thursday, and then threw up Thursday night. But the spots were still the same, no worse, no better, no more, and not particularly itchy. I'm thinking now that it's a combination of eczema and insect bites that happened to be noticed with a virus. And the trip word "chickenpox" had me up in arms quickly. :)

Thursday night she slept 8-3:30am. At 3:30 she woke up and then stayed awake allllll day.She didn't even have rest time Friday afternoon. I was sure she's sleep normally Friday night, but instead she was awake at 2am.

I am about ready to lose it! I've done all those awake hours, minus the 5-8 shift one of those days. She's watched a lot of movies, simply so I could lay on the couch and try to snooze. But you know it's not quality sleep... Oi!

So anyways, I fell asleep last night watching We Are Marshall, after I'd fed Naomi again, and put her to bed. Never remembered to post again.

Ha! I'll have trouble remembering my own name if I don't get some more sleep soon!

Yes, you can love someone *too much*!

That Mom

Are you THAT Mom?

I'm THAT Mom. I can't be sure whether I am proud of my status, or if I am simply comfortable with my title.

But that truth of the matter is that I am.

I'm THAT Mom ....

*...who washes out ziploc bags and reuses them until they have holes in them.

*...who puts unfinished baby food in the fridge and reheats it

*...who cuts the bad spots out of apples and put them in the fridge for "cutting up apples".

*...who hands her kid a lunchbox full of veges and fruit when other kids are eating stuff in plastic/foil wrappers. [Hey, she ate pear, carrot, celery, and caulifower! She only cared that I was eating chocolate cake, which I shared FYI.]

*...who reuses her tea bags sometimes. - I am my mother. I am my mother. I am my mother. -

*...who finds Facebook, a cup of coffee, a piece of chocolate, and 30 minutes peace absolute bliss!

*...who takes laundry off the line at 10:30pm because I forgot to do it 6 hours earlier.

*...who hunted desperate for the cordless phone this week. It rang into the answering machine before I found it. The caller hung up on the answering machine, so I hit the "find" button and started listening for it again. I found it .... on the hook ... ** Oh yeah ladies, I was hunting for a phone that was ON THE HOOK! ** Clearly I have lost my mind. And my eyeballs, apparently.

*...who gave up trying to feed the baby pumpkin and oats tonight after she repeatedly spit it at Matt and I, and instead gave her applesauce. When I realized the applesauce was being accepted readily, I stirred some of the denied pumpkin and oats into the applesauce. Hehehe. Never mind that the pumpkin concoction already had applesauce in it to make it more pleasing. I guess she'll just live on apples.

*...who gets into cleaning fits once in a grand while. It usually ends well. Who am I kidding, cleaning fits always end with something being clean - so they always end well. :) Right now my kitchen gleams! [We shall not discuss the remainder of the house though...]

*...who sincerely means it when I say, "If there was a fire, my family was out, and I had a chance to grab 3 things before I left the house, I would take my external hard drive, Joshua's ashes, and his hand/foot prints." [I often ponder why I would save Joshua's ashes from being burned, since that seems ironic to me. But I think it's as though he's there, so I couldn't leave him. On that strange note, when we leave for an extended time away, I insist that we put Joshua's ashes, the external hard drives - every family photo since 2005 - and his keepsakes in the fire-proof lock box.]

*... Are you that mom? Leave your THAT's in the comments!

Little red dresses

I had stopped at a walkway along the harbour to take pictures of the girls. While Matt was away I started sewing again. I had finished matching outfits for the girls and decided that they needed to have their pictures taken! I'm thinking these, or others taken in these dresses, will be our Christmas photo.

She's such a cutie.

Christmas dresses were always so much fun in the US, because they were just plain adorable. The velvets, the lace, the plaids. But it's summer here, during Christmas, so the dresses available in the US just aren't practical. So these are the official Christmas dresses this year.

The hearts just begged to be added...

That's Mt. Maunganui in the background. [Mong like Wrong, uh, new, ee]

I should have taken them out on a cloudy day, it wasn't good light that day. But they're cute, so it's okay!

I love this! It never occurred to me before, but since we have darkened side windows on our van, it's a really good reflection. As I was popping the girls back in their carseats, I saw an oppurtunity and took it. :) I like the way it turned out.

Bee Sting

Poor Oceana...

Nana took her to the park on Saturday afternoon to play. This girl is in love with the park - it could keep her entertained all day, every day. She's also a fan of the no-shoes approach. But since Saturday it's been really easy to get her to keep her shoes on, or put them back on if she has a lapse in her memory.

Apparently Oceana jumped down off the jungle gym and landed in bark. We're pretty sure she must have jumped onto a bee, because her foot got splotchy and she cried and cried. Mom said she stopped for a little while, but then started up again. That sort of behaviour makes me pretty positive it was a bee sting. Dude, I've had bee stings - that's some serious pain over something so small!

Nana to the rescue though: With Naomi crying and Oceana adding her woes to the situation, Nana whipped up the bee sting remedy. Ever put baking soda and water paste on a bee sting? Apparently the baking soda helps draw out the poison and take some of the pain away. We came back to get the girls and Daddy got to hang out on the couch with Oceana while she took care of herself. It looked more like finger-painting-with-glue, but whatever works! Nana'd recently taken a first aid course and knew not to pinch the stinger out, but instead scrape (as painful as it sounds) across the foot with her nail to swipe it out. Apparently if you squeeze it, you can force more poison into the wound. Just passing on the sage wisdom of my Momma!

PS. I'm not a bad Mom for taking pictures of my girl - Daddy was doing a great job!

NaBloPoMo

In 2007 and 2008 I watched several bloggers that I followed join in on NaBloPoMo. The concept: Blog 30x in 30 days. The idea obviously being that you blog every day. Well, I didn't join in those two years, but I'm feeling like I need a blog-jolt these days. I've enjoyed blogging more often, since I had "nothing else" to do with Matt gone.

So here's my 2nd post for November, see I'm already doing well with 2x in 2 days. :)

Details for today: Matt has an appointment at Inland Revenue [read: IRS of NZ] for his IRD [read Social Security] number. *Eye roll* I went in thinking I could apply for him with just photocopies of his documents. Yeah, that went about as well as you probably think it did.

I simply cannot be trusted these days. My brain has official shut-down. I searched the house the other day for our cordless phone. It rang all the way through to the answering machine and I still coudln't find it. The person hung up on the answering machine without leaving a message, so after it had stopped beeping, I hit the "find" button. It starts beeping again - this is when I realize it's on the charger.

No, you're not misunderstanding me. I was searching under couch cushions for a phone that was right where it was supposed to be. It made me just a little nervous to be left along for 2 1/2 weeks with my children. ;) Don't worry, I fed them, clothed them, and they're no worse for the wear.

So here's to 30 posts in 30 days!

Jump Start

Christmas sneaks up on me every year. I tell myself I have plenty of time. And then suddenly it's the first of December and I've got 3 weeks left.

In hopes of not getting caught out this year and pulling too many late nights [says the woman about to start a project at 10:30...] I'm starting projects now!

Tonight, I'm trying this out. *Here's to emptying out the scrap bin and getting Christmas presents sorted out early!*

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this picture thought. :)

My funny girl

IMG_5538 copy, originally uploaded by mnssams.

I'm so proud of this girl. And while she drives me bonkers some days [she needs no other reasons than Daddy being gone for 2 weeks, and her being a delightful 3 year old], she's a delight.

I love her smile.

Her eyes blow me away every time I look at them.

She's an adventurous eater.
*Curried pumpkin soup
*Every veggie we put on the table
*Marmite [ew]

She loves to sing.

She loves babies, playing with babies, and caring for babies.

Oce loves puzzles

And Duplo Legos.

And especially colouring and painting.

She has her Momma's curls.

She has - who knows who's - golden-green eyes,

I love my girl, Oceana Faith.

October 2009 Newsletter

or view the larger version here.

Banana Oat Teething Rusks [Biscuits]

*Those are teething rusks. That's what I gave her last night at dinner... Toast, pumpkin, pear, egg yolk, and a bit of oatmeal*

I read a bit about homemade teething rusks this morning and decided to make my own recipe up.

This is what I did, I think you'll get the concept. I'm sure this is a very flexible recipe. What's the worst that happens? They get harder?

3/4 cup oats (I have instant oatmeal in the house)

3/4 cup oat flour (Put your oats in a blender and beat the tar out of them)

1/2 mashed banana

pinch of salt

dribble by dribble of water

Mix it together without the water and then add a dribble at a time. You're going for nearly-dried out playdough texture. I rolled them into pinky finger sized rusks and popped them in the oven for about 45 minutes at 180 degrees (350). Check on them, but I put them back in after 30 minutes because they were of a cookie texture, and I wanted rock-hard cabin bread type things. :) Think Hard Tack from Little House on the Prairie :)

Picture to follow...

IMG_5541 copy

IMG_5541 copy, originally uploaded by mnssams.

How to do a Back Carry with a Moby Wrap

I've had a few people ask how to wrap a baby on your back with a Moby wrap. I always look on YouTube for tutorials when I want to do something new with my wrap. But I thought maybe you'd like to see how Naomi and I do it. :)

***I should add that I went right from doing this to finishing up my dinner dishes. I only had a few left to do and she was asleep by the time I finished. I was so happy tonight - I unwrapped the Moby slowly, slid her off my back, wrapped her in a blanket, and laid her down for the night! Woohoo!***

The Mommy Blogger Phenomenon

I have a theory. I think it's a pretty good theory. But we'll see, because I'd just love to hear your take on the matter.

The Facebook, Blog, and Twitter phenomenon. What's your take? See, I did email and MSN chat with a few select people "back in the day" - you know the early 2000's - when Myspace was something vaguely out there in the universe. And then I thought I was just the bee's knees for having a Myspace page. I maintained it, though I did find it annoying to navigate, and even more annoying to change my profile and such.

I started a blog after I followed Tarah from her Myspace page to her blog. I'd seen Xanga before, and even posted a few odd times on my Xanga around the time I got married. But I grew tired of it and had a hard time remembering my sign in information. I was amazed by this blogging phenomenon! That was in October 2007, and within a few days of reading Tarah's, I started my own.

We were already into the hard months of Joshua's pregnancy - having found out in August 07 that Joshua had an encephalocele. At first I blogged about him, about how I was feeling, then about his birth [7 Jan 2008, his life, and eventually his Home Day [15 March 2008]. After he was gone I blogged about what life looked like now, about Oceana, and soon about our new little one that would arrive in April 2009.

Then I heard about Facebook. I said I already had a Myspace, so there was no reason to get another thing I had to maintain. But curiosity got the better of me and I realized - around the time we lost Joshua - that half the people I knew had a Facebook. So, I got Facebook page!

Then at some point I got a Twitter account, and while that one doesn't get updated as often as the rest, I do keep it "warm", but perhaps not running red hot :).

It began innocently enough - I wanted to tell people about our family, I wanted to connect with old friends.

And now I realize that a lot of my motivation is simply this:

*I want to connect with human beings over the age of 3.*

I spend my days talking about Nemo, Larry Boy, baby dolls, and legos. I take shoes off, put shoes on, wash stinky toes, cut crooked toenails, and deny little girls when they ask me [at this very moment] "Smehw my steekny TOES!" and then give in to shut her up [Ahem].

I need some human interaction. Facebook, blogging, and Twitter offer me that. I'm a social butterfly and I need people. And if I've got to type my conversations, rather than speak them, that so be it. It does my mental health some good. :)

So that being said....

Why do you blog? Twitter? Facebook? I'm curious to see what other people do it for. :)