??? Questions ??? 7

Michelle said...

What effect does the leaking have on Joshua, will it replenish itself and is the wrapping helping to reduce the leaking. How is O coping with all the attention on J? What is a typical routine for you guys?

Effect? He's not bothered by it.

Will it replentish? I think so. He loses enough that we should notice a size difference in his cele - but there isn't one.

Is the wrapping helping to reduce the leaking? No. He still leaks the same. Perhaps it does reduce it, but because it's different that when he first leaked, it's difficult to tell how much it would leak (at present) without the wrappings.

How is Oceana coping with the attention to Joshua? Very well. We try to involve her in "helping" and holding him, getting diapers, "going to see baby" all the time, and spending time with her. She's enough of a selfish toddler that she doesn't get it when "Mommy can't pick you up" or "Mommy can't hold you right now" or "Mommy's feeding Joshua, i can't get you a snack now. please wait".

What's our typical routine? Hahaha. I'm trying to figure out what routine's going to look like. I'm not a routine person. However - an average day looks like this.

6:30-7:00 - Oceana gets up and has breakfast.
7:30-8:00 - Wake up Joshua and feed him.
8:00-10:00 - Hanging around, changing the diapers, changing the clothes. Joshua sleeps.
10:00-12:00 - Oceana plays, I blog, laundry... etc.
12:00 - Lunch, feed Joshua
Afternoon - Hanging out, doing "stuff", Oceana takes naps occasionally.
I try to take a walk every few days. Hopefully more this week.
Late afternoon - Making dinner
6:30 and beyond - we're TV people. I make no apologies.
8:00 - Oceana's bedtime.
11:00 - Last feed for Joshua.
12:00 - 1:00 - I'm usually just getting to bed....

Matt runs every day and lifts weights every other day. So that's about an hour and a half out of the day. Usually in the morning - sometimes in the evenings.

Thanks for the reminder - I've been wanting to see what it is that I accomplish in a day and multiply it. I feel like a very lazy person, a very unhealthy person, a very unfit person, an impatient mum, and a shut-down-type person. It's gonna change.

Day 35

Last night Oceana went to a birthday party. Eli Noah James M. is turning 2 today. This is Eli - he's a friend from church. He and Oceana are exactly 2 months apart (11 Feb, 11 April). Here's a few pictures from our Christmas party at Mainly Music (Mommy and Me music class). It was dress up day - so Eli's a Kiwi Santa, Oceana was an angel.
Like a good old crazy mum, I took Oceana at 7pm (an hour before bed!) to a birthday party full of presents, sugar, and rambunctious kiddies! But she had a fantastic time! And some fantastic cake too. :) Eli's mum is quite talented in the cake department. She made a Noah's ark cake - complete with chocolate cookie roof, chocolate logs on the sides, a 2nd story, and dozens of animals. I'm beyond impressed! WOW!

Joshua got to stay home with Daddy and have a bottle. We tried out a bottle on Saturday to see if he could handle it. Sometimes babies have a hard time transitioning. NOT Joshua! Wow! He took to it the second he got it. Last night I was giving him the last bits of the bottle when the phone rang. I propped it up on a pillow and ran to get the phone. I thought it would be a quick phone call, but it was my gramma and I was on the phone for 20 minutes. When I came back he was still sucking on the bottle - even though it was all gone. I think we're gonna have to find this boy a pacifier! We bought him pacifiers, but they're too big! They're for 0-3 months, but they don't even fit in his mouth!

Here's another picture from yesterday. I think his face is filling out. And I love seeing his eyes open. Doesn't Oceana looked thrilled!?!?!

Day 34

Hanging out with Mummy at the computer.

And what was Mummy doing? Blogging....

Oceana asked to hold Joshua again. She sits next to me and hits her legs saying, "Lap? Lap? Lap?" Until I let her hold Joshua.

She found petroleum jelly and smeared it through her hair and all over her face. This is post-clean-up. Her hair's permanently standing up. Gel can be subsituted with petroleum jelly apparently.
Fantastic.

Joshua's head looked good today - I didn't see it. The nurse came the second I was getting in the shower. So they were done by the time I got out. It looks like the infection is gone. It's just an wound now. It's still leaking CSF.

It's shaping up to be a busy week. Pray for us!

Day 33

That good news is such a relief. I was really worried that in the midst of all this mess. I was sure I'd end up being low on iron and have a thyroid problem. While it still leaves the panic attacks unanswered (the thyroid might have been relate to them), it's reassuring that my thyroid's not "going". (Like it's a carburator or something... haha) My dad's sister has had her thryoid removed, and she told me it "gave out" when she was pregnant with her 2nd child - at the age of 22. (OH MY GOODNESS!) So it had me pretty freaked out when I looked at some of the "symptoms" of thyroid issues. It's amazing how when you're worried you can "see" your symptoms so much more. Skin and hair changes - fatigue - depression - anxiety - trouble remembering things. Ok - who, when they're stressed, doesn't see some of these things!

"Hi, my name is Susie; and I'm a hypochondriac!"

Oceana's hanging on my shoulders and has a full-o-stink diaper. I'll be right back.
All better.

Joshua's sitting up in one of his chairs this morning. As Matt put it, "Buddy, you wanna watch the world go by?" On that note, we've realized that either Joshua's blind (but can see light) or he doesn't have the reaction to blink when things are moving close to his face. If we wave our hands in his face - where a normal person would blink uncontrollably - he isn't even slightly phased.

My dad is back from Samoa this morning. It was nerve-wracking having him gone for over a week with Joshua in his present condition. Especially when he had the infection. But he's back and Joshua's doing great.


Beautiful little hands. Looooong fingers. See all those "rolls"? My boy needs to gain some more weight and fill those out!
Long skinny feet too.

Hanging out in his bassinet. Those are preemie-sized pants. Wow, he's still so teeny.

Good news

My thyroid's within the normal range.

My iron's within the normal range.

Joshua's CSF isn't leaking too badly. Yesterday the nurse reused the previous day's outside padding (just changed the inside dressing). And she did the same thing today. Which means that Joshua used the same "packing" for 3 days! When it was leaking heavily he was going through all the layers and soaking his hat after about 24-36 hours.

And the house is clean.

Day 32

Photo-op day

Joshua on his sheepskin

Reaching for the camera

Watching TV with Daddy


Clarification on immigration: We're applying to remain in New Zealand for a further 2 years. We're not going anywhere.

The panic attack lasted an hour and a half. I did manage to get some sleep last night. Although Oceana woke up during the PA - so had her in bed with us the rest of the night. She's like sleeping with a 15-limbed hyper-puppy.

Joshua's doing well this morning. And was fairly cooperative when Mommy stripped him down to his diaper for some pictures.

Oceana and Mommy watched "-Rella" this morning (Cinderella. I'm passing on my love to a 2nd generation!)

She's trying to decide if she'll fall asleep on my lap while I blog. I hope so...

The house is a mess. Yay me. I'm good at getting stuff messy. Is there a career in that?

Oceana wants to go for a walk, but Matt's working in the garage, and Joshua can't go with us. She's like my little exercise alarm. I can't ignore exercise forever with her around.

Love you all.

Another mid-night prayer request

Another one. Yeah, another panic attack. It started 20 minutes ago at 1:20am Friday morning (7:30am Thursday EST). I'd been asleep about an hour and a half. It's not as bad as the last one. But I still won't be able to sleep for (EASILY) another half hour to hour.

Please refrain from telling me to test my thyroid - I did. The labwork got lost (we only realized yesterday) and it's still "in process". I appreciate the advice - but let's not beat a dead horse.

Please pray this stops.

While I'm on this prayer request line - I almost wrote a PR list post before bed, but skipped it.

1). We have a particular test/exam we want Joshua to have. We need a speedy reaction to our request with the doctors, the right doctors on hand on the day, a good interpretation by an excellent doctor, and Joshua's cooperation. If he doesn't cooperate, they can't do it.

2). Wisdom for the next step. It's difficult when you're face with two camps of thought - a)Let him go with dignity, don't put him through too much, do the best for him, and b) exhaust every possibility, leave no stone unturned, do the best for him. It's hard to know what's best sometimes.

3). Miraculous outcome for Joshua. Miracles might look different than we expect - but we expect miraculous outcomes for Joshua.

4). A conclusion regarding these night-time attacks. Whether it's medical/physical or medical/mental, or purely spiritual... I am SICK of them. They are debilitating and fear-riddled.

5). Immigration:
- That the job description gets finished quickly
- That the request for a reference letter from my old job gets to the right person and gets completed quickly
- That the fingerprints for the FBI background checks go through the first time, and that they follow the deadline on the form
- That the letter from Joshua's pediatrian (for confirmation of his diagnosis) is completed quickly
- No need for "additional information" once the application is in. (The results in my running around like a chicken with my head cut off for day - trying to find the "additional info").

Lattes

Seinfeld - The Complete Seventh Season (2006)


This is the lesser-of-the-funny clips from "The Maestro" regarding Kramer's cafe latte obsession. At the end of the show Kramer is awarded cafe latte's for life from JavaWorld. He's drinking them back-to-back and gets kicked out of JavaWorld for (essentially) coming apart at the seams. He's on a total caffeine high and is talking about hundred miles an hour. :)


"I've been drinking cafe latte's since the fifth grade, and I've never looked back!" - Kramer


Are you laughing at me yet?

And yes, we do have Starbucks here - but its 45 minutes drive from here. :o(

>>>>>>>> Laaaaa tttaaaaayyyyy <<<<<<<

This shirt is SO ME!

Do I seem slightly obsessive? Eh... perhaps.

How did I come to the conclusion that "...Mommy needs a latte..."?

Daddy left to go grocery shopping and left Mommy with two kids. One is asleep. One is wide awake and wanting to be entertained. Mommy's falling asleep on the couch. Not a good sign.

I'm sorry everyone - I'm not one of those "good moms" that skips out on caffeine for years of her life while pregnant and nursing. Because if that were the case I'd not have had caffeine in over 2 1/2 years. And I can't handle more than about 12 hours...

And at 12 hours I'm collapsing.

This morning I had a weak cup of tea (2nd time through the teabag)... that makes my last cup of coffee about 18 hours ago.

And Daddy's gone.

Where's the coffee?

A fun post

A Household of Books

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages.)

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

2. Open the book to page 123.

Ok

3. Find the fifth sentence.

Ok

4. Post the next three sentences.

"Apart from that, they were very different; some had tails and others not, some wore great beards and others had very round, smooth faces, big as pumpkins. There were long, pointed noses, and long, soft noses like small trunks, and great blobby noses. Several had single horns in the middle of their foreheads."

5. Link back to the person who tagged you.

Julie tagged me.

6. Tag five people.

Sarah F.

Tarah

Andrea

Havalah

Danielle

By the way - please do not be fooled! The only reason The Silver Chair is nearest to me is because I had to walk to the bookshelf and find the one on the end (closest to the computer desk). But it's actually across the living room, behind the couch, beyond the sewing table. It's not like it was "out lying around". Now that I think of it though - there's a Bible holding up the broken leg of Joshua's bassinet. AAHAHAHAH. I should have used that one. My point in this paragraph is to let you know I don't read C.S. Lewis or the Chronicles of Narnia. CoN are "fantasy-ish" and that type of book and I don't get along.

7 February 2008 - 1 month old!

Look at these lips!

His arm disappeared down the sleeve, so she was trying to retrieve it.

Napping after breakfast

What a precious face. 1 month old.

Wow. Who thought we'd have made it here. I'm so impressed and proud of my little man. The Plunket nurse (well-child nurse), Pediatric homecare nurse (homecare nurse from his hospital) , and the ACC nurse (who changes his dressings) are all coming next Tuesday to see him. So we'll have an updated weight and height for him. I think he's about 19" tall now (+2 inches). He's looking a bit more filled out. Those cheeks are filling out, and his legs aren't nearly so skinny anymore.

He was wide-eyed when he woke up this morning. I love seeing his eyes open, since he sleeps so often. I'm getting little half-smiles if I rub his ears while he's nursing. But if I'm nursing him I can't manage to get pictures... I'll keep trying.

Oceana's in destruction mode today. AK! Drinking my tea, trying to plug US plugs into NZ plugs, falling off the couch, pulling the printer off the desk, opening the bag of rice krispies all by herself (potentially dumped on the floor!), coloring on my work pages, typing on the computer (opening programs even!). BLAHHH... It's not 9am yet... I hope she gets over it, because if we keep going like this all day long I'm gonna lose my mind.

Day 30

Joshua's not a big fan of medicine, but he's doing pretty well taking it. It takes about 10 minutes to get all 2.5ml into him (half a teaspoon). But that's ok. Funny enough (not surprising...) his acne's clearing up since the antibiotics.

Evidence of the "tattooing" incident. It's on her arms too - can you see that? Gosh her cheeks are chubby.

Having a cheesey moment. Moments before she was climbing on my chest and shoulders. No joke. I'm sure from these last two photos you wonder if she ever wears clothes. No, not really. Inevitably she gets food on something, it gets taken off, and then we either forget to re-clothe her, or she doesn't want to put anything else on. Whatever. She'll have to wear clothes to Kindergarten, but until then...

Joshua's good this morning. If forgot to give him his medicine at breakfast, so I'll have to remember to give it to him before bed now. He needs four doses a day. I did fine yesterday, but was a little fuzzy this morning. I stayed up till 2, then got woken by Oceana at 6. We were in bed together till 7, but awake just the same. I wasn't up till 2 on purpose. I was up till 1 - finishing a project... surprise surprise - and then went to bed. A moment after my head hits the pillow I start hearing Joshua's lips smacking. DARN IT! So up we got, and went to have a post-midnight snack. Oh well.

Sleep is for suckers anyways.
Bring on that 2nd cup of coffee before noon.

??? Questions ??? 7

**How many kids do we want?**

Um. Well, when we were dating we agreed that 6 children was a good plan. Then the MOMENT we were pregnant Matt decided maybe 1 was just fine. I was still in the 6 camp. After we found out about Joshua (and Matt adjusted) he said 2 was good. I was still in the 6 camp. Then we found out about Joshua's situation and we both sort of let that whole conversation take a back seat. I think... 5 or 6 is a good plan... but we're really nervous to try again. There's no particular reason to think this would happen again. But there's always a risk - in fact my risk of having another child with an encephalocele is 10x higher than the average woman. It's not genetic, but I guess folic acid/folate deficiencies would stay with a person, potentially causing it again.

I think we'll have more, but we'll probably go one at a time now. I have no idea. Matt's from a family of 2, I'm from 4. I like lots of sibilings, I always thought kids came out "better in bigger batches". Haha.

When friends become family

Our life together has been one huge rollercoaster thus far. We've never been "normal", we've never had a "down time". We were dating, engaged, married, and pregnant within one year. We had Oceana 18 months after we started hanging out together. We moved to New Zealand before our first anniversary. We were youth pastors and working with another ministry pretty quickly. Then we found out about Joshua, went to our DTS, ... and now we're here.

Let me show you a bit of what has kept us going. It's our friends who have become family....


Our youth group.

Keith & Peka W. (youth group parents)

Cliff, Naomi, Hannah, Ainsley, Mallory, and Carl P.

Bryce, Christina, Miles, and Lil' ? T.


Roy, Pam, Christopher, Tyffani, and Faith S.

Josh, Danielle, and Samuel T.

What amazes me is that some of these people don't know each other. If we all knew each other, we'd have some butt-kicking BBQs together! These people are family to us. And like it or not, they're stuck with us. I can't tell you how encouraging their emails are, their phone calls, and the prayers I know they pray for us.

Cliff - someday can we be your youth pastors?
Danielle - I'm sorry but we're not coming back
Bryce & Christina - can't wait to see you!
Roy & Pam - thank you for all your behind-the-scenes prayer. We know its there.

And to our youth group - you guys are so much fun! And you have been our weekend fun for a long time now!

Medical Clarification

To Nurse Sarah and any other medical professionals lurking: No, it's not the resistant staph infection, just Staphylococcus aureus.

To everybody else: S. aureus is a normal bacterial in your nose and on your skin. An overgrowth results in a staph infection. The resistant staph infection is really bad. So in the scheme of things... S aureus is a good thing.

Day 29

I tried to upload a video of Oceana and Joshua last night. But after several hours of letting it upload I refreshed the page and lost it. I give up. If I ever figure out an easier way to upload I will. The video was of them having hiccups together! Joshua had them, so I picked him up. I was sitting at the computer holding him when I realized Oceana's talking to me and missing out words. Suddenly it registered that she had hiccups too. I started yelling for my brother to "Get in here! Get the camera!" I'm sure he thought I was nuts. It was so funny!

One person already commented on the fact that we're giving Joshua antibiotics. I know we said that we'd probably not use antibiotics. The doctors that saw him before he was born and the pediatrian that saw him when he was born all said that antibiotics would prolong the inevitable and that they wouldn't prescribe them. However, our GP and the health nurse who sees Joshua feel differently about it. When I took Joshua in last week and she started asking if she should swab the scab for infection. I burst into tears! I think I felt that if I knew it was infection, it would seem all the more real. And I "knew" they wouldn't give him antibiotics. So knowing that there was infection would only drive home that point. And instead Dr Bowman and Heather the nurse stood there and kept asking if we'd been able to make any decisions for Joshua. I continued crying, and couldn't barely talk, because the truthful answer was "No." We've been having to go with what we're told, because we really don't know what to expect, and we're not medically trained. So our assumptions have been very wrong sometimes. We've just accepted what we've been told, and gone along with it. (Some of this is due to New Zealand's socialized medicine - I can't just "get another opinion" as easily as in the US).
So Dr B and Heather strongly encouraged me to let them swab it and check for infection. They said - it's paliative care - we want to make him comfortable. And as they put it - infection's not comfortable. So he's on antibiotics - which probably are prolonging the "inevitable". But Joshua's doing great. I'm so glad we're able to choose some things for Joshua - and that he's not at the mercy of 'some doctor'.
In other news.
Matt got a gift from his dad yesterday - which he was totally surprised by - and very excited about too. And Oceana found a pen. Yeah.... "found a pen". Yesterday morning my brother gave her a tiny tattoo on her arm that said "I *heart* Mom and Dad"...which was cute at the time. Until she got the idea that pen and skin were fun. So last night, before bed (when she was only daiper-clad) she managed to redecorate her epidermis... just a bit... ok... just a lot. All four limbs and her tummy. Wow.... Oh well. I took pictures.
Immigration medical exams and such are finished. Oh good. No more chest xrays, no more peeing in cups, no more blood sucking phlebotomists, no more standing on scales, and no more filling out paperwork. Ok, nix the last one - we still have to fill out the actual applications for visas. Blah. Don't I sound excited. I should be - I should be knock-down-drag-out-passionate about it, because our visas expire in a month and 4 days. AK!
*Pray for Joshua's staph infection
*Pray for Joshua's leakage - it's going through all the bandages in one day (it's only changed every 2 days) even with extra gauze inside. I had to put more gauze in again yesterday.
*Pray for Oceana - her sleep schedule got messed up the other day, so she's a bit worn out today (we've had to tantrums by quarter to 10)
*Pray for our visas - we're trying to get the last bits for the application today. I just want it in the mail and out of my hair!

4 weeks - 28 days

Here's what Joshua looks like today - on his 4th birthday. He's doing pretty good.
He does not like medicine though. Joshua rarely cries. In fact it's probably been ten days since I last heard him cry. When I tried to give him his medicine tonight he really like it. So I gave it to him a little quicker - too quick in fact! He choked a bit and let out a big cry. His cries startle me SO badly. I freaked. But I think it just pushed the syringe to fast.
The reason for the medicine (Flucloxacillin Erythromyacin) is that he's got an infection. The scab/open wound that was weeping was infected. It had a "heavy growth of Staphylococcus aureus". I'm sure you're not interested in what it was. But I'm always interested in that "actual" scenario - beyond Joshua's-on-antibiotics-because-it's-infected. That probably explains why when people ask me the situation with Joshua I end up explaining what a neural tube defect is, how it happens, and what can happen when there's an encephalocele. I guess I have an aversion to saying "He's got a birth defect".
Joshua, Oceana, and I went to a friend's house today, because Matt and Josiah were watching the Superbowl. They had to go to another friend's - so I went to my friend's and hung out. As I put it to Matt, "I don't want to be left home alone and outnumbered!". It made me realize that if Joshua stays with us and Matt gets a job - I will be home alone and outnumbered. Uhoh.
You can see all Joshua's acne - poor boy. His naked picture makes him look more filled out than he seems to be. He's still skinny. Wayyyyy skinny. But I think he's gaining still.

??? Questions ??? 6

THE SHIP

I know I've made mention of "the ship" quite a lot, but never really explained what I meant by that. A lot of people have asked about this, and I keep forgetting to elaborate. So here's the rundown.
YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission, it is a non-denominational ministry that was founded by Loren Cunningham in 1960. Loren's vision for the ministry was to see young people doing missions work overseas. As the ministry grew it became a two-part ministry. The first part - called a DTS or Discipleship Training School is a 5-6 month course. There are 3 months of lectures and school time. These 12 weeks are spent learning about God, who He is, and why He matters in a person's life. It's a very hands-on school, in that it's not a knowledge-based curriculum, but about what's going on in your heart. The 2nd part of a DTS is the 8-12 weeks of outreach time. It's a short-term ministry excursion, usually overseas (but not necessarily).
The second part of YWAM is the outreach bases. There are bases all over the world, in more than 150 countries. These bases do everything from ministry to families to drug rehabilitation to mercy ministries.
Marine Reach is one of YWAM's mercy ministries. Their vision is to take small ships with shallow drafts (not much ship under the water) into the islands offering free medical, dental, and optometric care in places that do not have these services available to them.
At present Marine Reach has two ships, and they're hoping to have another in the water by the end of 2008.
About 5 or 6 years ago when Marine Reach first purchased the Pacific Link, the refurbish was being done in Tauranga Harbor - just an hour from our house here at Waihi Beach. My dad was pastoring full-time then, but went down once a week to help. In 2005 he and my mom did a CDTS (designed for people over 35) and then did their outreach time on the ship.

They've been directors on the ship since then. Directors means they are "mom and dad". They keep track of everything that goes on, and work very closely with the captain. When we (Matt, me, and Oceana) moved to New Zealand in 2006, we got to visit them down on the ship a lot. Matt took a trip with my Dad into Fiji that year, and got excited about the idea of working on the ship. We can't work on the ship presently, because Oceana and water isn't a great idea. So instead we started working with the MR office. Matt made a trip into Fiji in 2007 to organize some things ahead of time for the ship. I've been writing some things for their publications, and hopefully I'll get to do more of that this year.
Because of our situation this year we haven't done as much as we'd like to have done. But we do try to help out a lot on the ship - Matt does work projects, I help out with cleaning and stuff like that.

And that's "the ship".

Later in the day...

A few pictures from this afternoon.

This is the lace curtain my mum found for Joshua. I can see him through it (I'd been using a bed sheet...) and it keeps the "yuckee fyz" off. (Oceana's words). Joshua's nurse came and cleaned his cele. It's looking better, but it's still open, weeping, and raw. Pray for the best case scenario here please.
Yes, that's a cloth diaper - for those with keen eyes. We only do cloth diapers if we run out of disposables. A friend offered (a year ago) to buy Oceana diapers so I didn't have to do the cloth thing. I really appreciate it, but occassionally there's space between packs. So every once in a while we get to go back and visit the cloth-camp. It's not bad, but it's a lot more work than disposables. I don't mind it. I did it for Oceana from 2 months - 9 months. We would have done them from birth, but a lot of people gave us disposables when she was born.
I think we only bought her one pack before she was 8 weeks old. :)
I'm old school too - if you've got realllly keen eyes - you'll see that. Those are prefolds with plastic head pins and plastic pants. :)

Joshua was looking rather adorable today. :) I love this onesie - it was my favorite with Oceana too. It's white with aqua, yellow, melon, and lime stars. :) Favorite colors. He's covered in spots too - baby acne x10 - that's the darker spots around his nose and eyes. Probably a good reason to turn this black and white.

We made it to church. Now our whole youth group has seen Joshua. One of our girls had to work every time we've seen her family. It was so nice to let her see him. Everybody's favorite thing to say about him is, "Oh! He's so tiny!". Today during church he was curled up on my chest with his knees pulled up to his chest - he just turns into this little blue lump. So cute....
We were going to make pizza for dinner. But there's no more spaghetti sauce. So it's 6:20 and we're sitting around not making anything. I have a funny feeling Matt's going to come up the stairs soon and ask when dinner is ... I'm probably going to look at him like a deer in headlights.
"??? Questions ??? 6" to follow next.

Day 27

all is well. joshua's nurse came and redressed his 'cele. its looking less goopy but still leaking lots. he's in my arms so i'm typing one-handed. capitals are unnecessary....
we're getting ready for church.

had a yay! moment this morning when i *ever-so bravely* opened the box of pre-pregnancy clothes. after trying two pairs of pants i gave up... but did find a lot of shirts that fit. i was getting sick of the same 3 shirts over and over again. yay!

oceana peed on the carpet this morning. my fault for letting her run naked too long.

joshua's sporting some new gear from a friend. so kool to have him in stuff that fits.

will write again later.