Strawberry Mountain

Driving West

Well, not really West, but I couldn't help myself.  I took a little video coming home from my errands today.  Brian and I set out to do a little Christmas shopping.  We got to the mall, did our shopping and when I was putting him back in the car, I noticed that my front right tire was going flat.  So, do it yourselfer that I sometimes am (NOT), I drove to the gas station to put some air in my tire. 

Seriously dude, I couldn't get the valve cap off.  It was frozen solid.  I guess now would be the time to mention my car temp reader was bouncing between -5 and -7 outside.  I was beginning to become stressed, because my tire was really starting to look like a pancake.  When I called Rick on the phone, he told me to take it in to the place we bought it, because we had "road insurance" on it.  So I slowly drove to the tire store.  I walked in, and asked them if they could fix my tire, as I could not even get the valve cap off because it was frozen.  He looked up my info in the computer, and sure enough, I did have this "insurance" on my tires.  Man, was I ever grateful.  He told me there were two people ahead of me, and it would take "awhile" which he then explained was "about an hour".  I figured an hour in the tire store was better than an hour with a blown tire outside so I said, "go for it".

Brian and I sat down, and then I realized they had a free cappuccino machine with hot chocolate in it.  So Brian and I shared a really nice cup of hot chocolate.  This place was huge, and had a bunch of toys and Lego's in the corner, so Brian was happily playing, and I got to read about two People magazines.

I wasn't in the mood to complain and honestly,  it wasn't such a bad place to hang out, much better than broken down somewhere with a frozen tire valve.

After about 30 minutes, they were done with my truck, and I was able to go, free of charge, and happily warmed by a feeling of nice warm hot chocolate, nice people and a happy son.

We then went on to Wally World, which was surprisingly crowded for as cold as it was outside.  I hurried to get what I needed, and bought Brian and I each a container of popcorn chicken since we were starving.  We nearly ate it all while standing in line.  Today was one of those uncomplicated Walmart trips, thankfully.  By the time we got back to the car, we were both ready to be home and out of the cold.  I took the video below while driving up "our hill" as I like to call it.  I really was going slow, so no worries

Later Gater,

Monica

I think I'm Leaving Babyville Behind...finally...

So, I've been sitting here thinking tonight, that I think we are about to leave baby-ville behind forever.  I'm not sure how I feel about this, at all.  I mean, I love my kids, but I'm never having another one, so there is no need to keep the stuff.  But....but...I'm not ready to let it go. 

I have a few things I've been hanging onto tight, not yet ready to let them go.  It's not that I even want another baby, but I've been in constant babyland for over 5 years now.  I'm used to babies.  I'm used to packing things around all the time.  The idea of going someplace without carrying 80 gazillion things "just in case" is appealing and frightening all at the same time.

1st on the list.

My highchair.  I'm saying mine, because Leslie is ready for the table, and I'm not.  I love this stupid ugly green and white highchair.  It was given to me by a neighbor when Brian was a baby, and both my kids have used it.  It sits in my dining room, an ugly behemoth staring at me.  Rick threatens to get rid of it on a daily basis, and I'm just not ready.

2nd

 

My double stroller.  I have the jolly green giant of strollers.  My beloved Phil and Ted's E3.  It really is beautiful.  It's lime green and I can spot it in crowds.  It pushes like a dream, and cost me my kids inheritance.  But, it was worth it.  When we bought our 1st double stroller, we bought a Graco Duo-glider, which I suppose did do what it is supposed to do.  But the thing weighed about a ton, and took up the entire back end of my Tahoe.  The only time it was an acceptable ride was in the mall with smooth floors, any bump  and it freaked out.  It did carry Leslie's infant seat along with Brian but I hated it.  I knew I wanted a nice stroller, and I finally got it.  It took me months of talking to Rick before he gave in and said OK.  He had originally thought we didn't need it, but after one push of the E3, he changed his mind. 

When we did the March of Dimes Preemie walk, he grabbed the kids from me and ran off with that stroller like a bat out of hell.  Dad's kept asking him where he got the "cool" stroller.  I swear you would have thought it was his idea, and I just let him think that.  So there you go, I'm having an especially rough time giving this up.  I haven't used it in months, save using it for a wheelbarrow at Brian's soccer games, to haul chairs and stuff to the field, and just on the off chance I would need to bolt Little Miss down so she wouldn't run, but honestly, I know we don't really need it anymore.  What's a girl to do?

3rd.

My Ergo Carrier. I packed Leslie all around Seattle in this thing last year, and I love it.  Unfortunately, she doesn't love it and screams at me constantly when I try to use it.  I'll tell you, nothing is more fun than an angry toddler screaming "mommy let me down" and hitting your back while trying to walk and keep up with your 5 year old.

4th.

My grocery cart cover.  I haven't used it in ages, but as the mom of 2 preemies, you can bet your britches that I did use it constantly for years.  I'm just not as freaked out about the kidlets getting sick anymore.

5th.

My Lands End backpack, diaper bag.  I still use this thing, after 5 years, it still looks very new.  I just don't use it as a diaper bag anymore.  So there you go, things I need to get rid of at some point.

Most of the baby paraphernalia I've been able to let go of, but these few things are really giving me a hard time.  Maybe when I have my grandkids I'll be able to finally let go, after all my E3 might just make a nice wheelbarrow.

Easter 2008

Brian and Leslie had great fun finding easter egg's at our friends house!

Rough Morning Today

Well, as much as I'd like to report my little darlings were perfect angels this morning, they weren't.  I woke up to whining and sniveling, and honestly, my knee was killing me, and I was whining and sniveling as well.  Suffice it to say, life in the house on Strawberry Mountain was not pleasant this morning.

Rick got a new job working part time at a small store near our house.  I really wanted him to get this job, and have felt all along that this might be a good place for him to work, and be happy.  He started today, and it sounds like he likes it so far, we will see I guess.

I'm in the middle of trying to plan Brian's BD party, and it is much tougher than I had planned.  I'm trying to figure out age appropriate activities for kids roughly 2-5.  I'm assuming we may have some little siblings in the mix of things as well as the kids we invite.   My mom suggested a book exchange, and I think that might be a great way to avoid the dreaded "party bag" that is so expensive, and full of junk that is either a.) just plain cheap and breakable; b.)  probably made in China, so who knows what the lead content is; and c.) not appropriate for really little kids.  So if anyone can give me some hint's, I'd be glad to read through them, no, not just glad, thrilled...excited...:)

We are in the middle of exchanging all of our incandecsant light bulbs for more energy efficient ones, but we have found one light in the basement that doesn't like them and keeps blowing them out, so I'm guessing we are going to have to go back to the old ones for that lamp.

Spring is coming to Montana, I can feel it, and I can't wait.  I am so tired of snow at this point, that I don't care if we've seen last of it for this winter.

Well, my lunch is over, so I must go back to work.

 Catch ya'll on the flip side!

4 Things...

Melissa over @ An Unexpectant Mother tagged me with this meme..so here goes. 

Four jobs that I have had :

Pizza Restaurant Manger (I could just put this and it would cover the 4 jobs), Legal Assistant, Patient Account Rep @ a hospital, and a Bagger at a grocery store.

Four movies that I’ve watched over and over again 

Steel Magnolia's, Murphy's Romance, Casablanca, Shawshank Redemption

Four places I have lived

San Francisco CA, Santa Cruz CA, Arcata CA and Alameda CA

Four TV shows that I currently watch

umm..this is embarrasing...Dora the Explorer, Diego, Backyardigans & Oobi....now seriously, Wife Swap ( I can't help it, they are all such train wreck's), Criminal Minds (my personal fav), House Hunters and Bizarre Foods.

Four places I have been

New Mexico, California, Washington State, Oregon
Four people who email me

Not naming names, but you know who you are..
Four favorite things to eat

Chinese food, Steak, Grilled Shrimp & my homemade Carbonara
Four places I would rather be

With my kidlets, Camping, Riding my 4-wheeler, the Beach

Four things I look forward to this year

My May Mommy Trip, My kids birthday's, Summer

I am supposed to tag someone else, but really have no one to tag, so If you feel like doing this, go for it!

Coming Soon for Our Enjoyment!

Mount Rushmore in the Fog

Rick and I sat down and started planning our vacation in July in enerst tonight.

The first leg will be a 4 day stop @ Mount Rushmore. I was looking at the KOA site for that area and it looks really fun. There is a train ride we can do with the kids, and a lot of really fun kid-friendly activities. It looks like they do chuck wagon dinners, shuttle to Mount Rushmore, and just a lot of fun camping sort of stuff.

Photo of the Chuck Wagon Dinner at the KOA @ Mount Rushmore.

Here are a few of the websites I was looking at:

Mount Rushmore National Park

The Making of Mount Rushmore

1880 Train

Brian started getting really excited about the trip when I started telling him everything that we would be doing. I think I'm going to buy a few books on it for him before we go.

After we leave Mount Rushmore, we will be heading down to Sioux Falls KOA for the night at the KOA there. We will be meeting fellow May Mommy and crew from Winnipeg Canada, Joelle, Kent, Carter and Grayson for a fun filled night of South Dakota Camping under the stars before we descend on Kansas City MO!

Why Kansas City you may ask? Mostly because it very central, which was important when you are planning a shindig with people traveling from all over the US and Canada.

We will drive to KC the next day and meet up with my May Mommy's for our 5th Birthday Extravaganza. I'm so excited about this. We will be going to a water park, and a Build A Bear.

We are also planning a May Kid's 5th Birthday Party.

We will have a "Mommy's Night Out" so that we Mommy's can really catch up and have some girl time. We are planning on the Dad's taking care of all the kids for that night. I think on the Friday we get there, we will have a "Dad's get together" so that they can get to know each other.

Since we have so many certified Car Seat Techs in our group, we will be having a car seat clinic for us. It's definitely going to be a fun weekend.

After we leave KC we will be heading up through Saint Louis on our way to Chicago to see my good friend Bernie and her Daughter Des. I'm almost as excited about this. Bernie and Brian share the same birthday in March. I haven't seen her since they came to see us when we lived in Alameda.

After that, we will make our way home through MN, NB and possibly WI as well as ND. Hopefully we will make it home by Sunday the July 20th.

For Brian & Leslie, Love Mommy

This song describes exactly what I want to say to my babies.

Snow Sunday

This is almost the same view as the picture on the top of my blog.

Our snow filled garden.

View off my front deck.

Looking south.

Another garden shot

Looking off the back deck.

One more shot off the back deck. I was looking out my window today and had to go take pictures, it was so snowy and misty out. Brian and I spent about 2 hours out in the snow today playing, throwing snow balls and riding the quad.

School Pictures

Or, should I say "Pre-School Pictures". Nevertheless, they are completely adorable, and I can claim these kids as my own. I'm so grateful for that.

Thursday

Such an original title, in case anyone is listening!

Leslie is doing much better. She seems to be feeling good, and is back to her old self more or less. I have a much harder time with her being sick than she does, I'm sure. She just wants Mommy, and I go into fear and terror mode, but it's great that she is recovering so quickly. I was really surprised how much it took out of her though.

Brian is back to wearing his Spiderman costume full time. He slept in it for the last two nights, and is now rotating the two he has and is begging me for a "black" Spiderman Costume, like this one. Maybe I'll get it for him for his birthday, but nevertheless he is obssessed.

He has really been working on his behavior this week. He has been picking up his toys with very little prompting. I had a long talk with him this week about his toys and belongings being "his" responsibility. I used the example of "mommy doesn't leave her iPod lying around so Leslie can throw it" to help him understand that some things, he needs to take it upon himself to make sure Sissy can't get it, can't throw it, can't break it. I think he is beginning to understand, at least I hope he is.

We got our telescope out last night and watched the Lunar eclipse, which is one of the nice things about being up on a hill in Montana, we had an excellent view. I really wish we had a better camera, I didn't even try to get a picture of it, I figured if I wanted one, there are millions out there anyway.

Oh, and I almost became a puppy mom today. Rick said no, but he has no idea how close I came to just buying this little black lab puppy.

I must get back to work,

Over and Out from Montana

Our Weekend

Sunday Night.

I don’t have to work tomorrow...yahoo! This is one of the benefits of having a state job...every single holiday off. I’ve never had that before. So I’m going to take Leslie to speech therapy and hopefully get a good idea how soon we are looking at discharge.

Little Miss is definitely on the mend, but definitely still feeling rummy. She has been a whiny mess for day’s. Just nonstop incessant whining. The sort that I haven’t heard since she was a baby and I was having such a hard time of it with her. Poor baby, I’m sure that on top of everything else, she is trying to cut some molars as well.

I cooked a chicken tonight for dinner in my chicken cooker, the Ron Popeil one, and it was once again, perfect, no fuss, no muss. There was hardly any chicken left. I don’t know when I’m ever ever going to get over the magic of this particular little piece of machinery. It just always works perfectly. There is very little to clean, and I get a perfectly roasted chicken every time. I think I’m going on year 3, and it still amazes me at how easy and perfect the chicken comes out.

Can you tell I’m wound up? Only a mom wound up on child whine would be blogging about Ron Popiel “set it and forget it” chicken at almost midnight on a Sunday night.

Rick’s birthday was really nice. I made him homemade shrimp scampi with pasta, on Saturday night with the kids. He opened his gifts and we had the cake, it was really nice. Brian was right up in it all trying to open daddy’s presents.

Friday Night

Well, Leslie definitely has RSV. I took her to Dr. Fritz today and he was sure of it, and just as I thought, he prescribed her a steroid as well as ABX because he thinks she has a sinus infection on top of it all. After a dose of ABX and a day’s worth of Prednisone, she is feeling much better and seems to be sleeping more peacefully than she has all week.

RSV is one of those things that can strike the fear of God into preemie parents.

I know when Leslie and Brian were really little I was terrified.

Brian didn’t meet the criteria for the RSV shots, but poor little Leslie met everyone and then some. She went into RSV season that first year on oxygen still, she was still being seen by the pediatric cardiologist.

Basically Dr. Fritz said she needed the shot’s and that our insurance would pay for it, because if she landed in the hospital with RSV, not only would it be more expensive for them, but that I would have grounds for a lawsuit.

Insurance companies don’t really like to give out Synegis shot’s. The one’s Leslie received for 6 months were $1500.00 a piece and she needed them for 6 months. We had to fight hard for that last month.

But now, 2 years later, RSV is not so scary. When kids get older and stronger, they have the ability to fight it off much more easily. It's more like the flu for kids that are older and stronger.

It’s only when they are tiny babies that the threat is so incredibly great. So now at this point, with her weighing almost 30 lbs, she is in a much better place to fight this off.

In fact, the good news from the Dr. today was when he said to me, “if this is RSV then we are looking good at not having extended respiratory issues with her”.

We really haven’t known how she was going to do on a long term basis because she had such issues that first year, but that was happy happy news for me today.

My little girl is such a fighter, she has such a fighting spirit. Probably because she had to fight so hard from the beginning. She didn’t have an easy time of it, as everyone knows, but she is making up for lost time now.

She is getting stronger and healthier every day. She has barely been sick this year, and after 2 years of her being sick nearly all the time this has been a total relief for both Rick and myself.

So I guess the short story to my long story is, she is doing great, her head is showing no more signs of closing up, it looks normal and we are looking at having a pretty darn healthy little girl.

We went out for dinner tonight with our friends Tony and Diana, Fred and Jacquie and Monica. Had a great time and after dinner we all headed back up the hill to our house for coffee. It really is nice to just relax with friends sometimes.

My friend Karen’s son and his girlfriend watched the kids for us, and that was great, Brian had never met them, but by the time we got ready to leave for dinner, neither he nor Leslie seemed to notice. They just gave us a kiss and said see you later. When we got home I was snuggling in bed with them and Brian told me that Tyler and Sammie were “his favorite”. Brian so loves having a boy to baby-sit him and play with him.

So over and out from Saddle Mountain!

Oh, and if anyone is wondering what “West of Strawberry Mountain” means, it’s because our house is West of Strawberry Mountain. But we live on Saddle Mountain...go figure with all the Montana Names.

Night All!

Valentines Day

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!I think Leslie has RSV. In fact, I’m pretty sure of it. There was one “confirmed” case of it in her preschool room. She has all the symptoms. So we are keeping her home right now, using the nebulizer on her and watching, I don’t really see any need to take her into the doctor, as he will tell us to do what we are doing. Dr. Fritz and I had a lengthy conversation about it last year, but if she does become worse, instead of better, she will definitely go in. At least my freak out level is much better today.

Brian is back into wearing Spiderman non-stop again. He slept in it last night, he ate in it. He will put the costume under his clothes, then run around pulling up his shirt saying “Mommy, guess who I am”? I say, “you are Brian” and he yells ”No, I’m Spiderman!” This can go backwards, and he might be in his full Spiderman garb, and say to me.. ”Guess who I am?” and I’ll say, “You are Spiderman” and he’ll yank off the mask, and then say, “No…I’m Brian!!!!” He takes great delight in doing this over and over. He lost his old Spiderman mask to the black trash bag last week, but he still has his new one. I believe he is beginning to wear this one out as well; I may need to buy yet another Spiderman Costume.

It’s nice and sunny out today, but we got roughly 2 inches of snow dropped on us yesterday, so I’m hoping we can play in it some this weekend.

Sunday Night ramblings....

We spent the day today just hanging out with the kids. Today was one of those lazy Sundays, full of laughs, naps and too much coffee. Actually, the whole day was not full of laughs. Rick and I had been trying and trying to get Brian to pick up his toys in the playroom. He will not cooperate, and we've been at our wits end for a few weeks over this.

Finally, yesterday, we told him that if his toys were not picked up by Sunday afternoon, then we were going to put everything on the floor in a black plastic trash bag and get rid of it. All morning today we kept telling him he needed to pick up his toys. Finally, after much goading, he picked up his bedroom, so I thought for sure we were making progress, but no matter how much we coaxed, pleaded and tried to encourage him to pick up his stuff in the playroom, he wouldn't do it.

Fast forward to this afternoon, after nap. Toys were still overflowing the floor in the playroom, and Rick and I finally acted on our threat. We got a black plastic garbage bag, and proceeded to put every toy, no matter how big or small in it. My poor boy cried, screamed and generally had a melt down. When we put his prized red stuffed snake in the bag, (this is the one he got in Seattle on vacation) and then the mask to his spider man costume, he crumpled on the floor in a heap of tears. I felt so bad for him, but at the same time, I know he is testing us. So away the snake and spidey mask went.

I should mention that Leslie gleefully helped us put everything in the bag. As reality finally sank in with Brian, Rick and I came down and had a much needed cup of coffee. I growled at him.."Meeeeeeeeeeen Daddddddddy".

So this week, we will go through that bag and get rid of the junk, and we will put away the prized toys for a time. If you are wondering, I do not plan to get rid of either the snake or the mask, or the other prized toys, but we do plan to put them into hibernation for a time before we bring them back out.

He was a little angel the rest of the day, so I think we made our point, at least I hope so .

Saturday Night Movie Night

Miss Leslie deep in thought.

Me and My Baby Girl

Brian mugging it up for the camera

Leslie giving Mommy a "wink".

My Honey

Say Cheese!

I'm so cute!

Leslie and Brian in the bath