It's soooo HOT!!!

This is how we have been spending the last few ridiculously hot days!

Our AC finally just go fixed yesterday, thanks to my cousin. Our AC has worked in all rooms of our house except our bedroom, so sleeping has been a little rough. We have one of those window fans that reads the temp and in the middle of the night it read 85 degrees! For some reason the people who installed our AC didn't keep pulling the tubing through the duct therefore not allowing ANY air to come out of our vent in our bedroom. Thankfully my cousin who works in HVAC was able to find the vent and figure out what was going on. Now we have AC again - now that the heat wave is over. :) The funny thing is I never grew up with AC in our house, but now that I've had it ever since Jeff and I have been married, I'm spoiled and can't live without it.

I'm new to this whole stay at home mom thing (I've pretty much always been a nanny and taken Peyton with me) so with the gas prices being so high, I have been actually staying home, which is so difficult for me b/c I always want to be doing something. Anyway, 2 days ago I decided in the 100 degree heat that I needed to get out and we walked to the park. - DUMB IDEA, I KNOW!! We were sweating before we even got 20 feet down the street. But the park has those black tire pieces that are fun to walk on because of how squishy they feel under your feet and when your child goes flying down the firemans pole at 20 miles an hour and lands with a thump - you're glad they are there. But, when it just adds more work to your day because he's covered from head to toe in black rubber, you really wish you just decided to stay home. :)

It's hard to see how black he really was but you get the idea. It was time for a bath! All the while Parker is screaming, but because we have neutral colored carpets and I am extremely anal, his bath couldn't wait. Somehow I always find someway to make my life so stressful! Thankfully they both napped at the same time, which means mommy got one too!

Playdoh... ugh!!

Whoever invented playdoh, clearly was NOT a mom!!! I can't tell you how much I hate playdoh and the mess it makes. And of course our 3 yr old LOVES it! We hide it in the closet downstairs and once every couple of months he can get it out. It's awful, because he enjoys it so much, but I can't stand having to clean it up. I find it for weeks on the floor, on his clothes, on my dining room table. And anyone who gives playdoh as a gift is evil. :) They either have no idea what it's like to have to clean it up or they really don't care because they aren't the one's having to do it.

Well I got brave and let Peyton get it out today. Maybe because I was feeling guilty for all the attention I have to pay to Parker lately and don't get the time I used to get to do stuff with him. Or maybe I'm just insane! :)

Catching up on Parker

Before I started this whole blog thing, I used to send out mass emails to friends and family about the boys. Well after sending out a recent email with new pics and updates on them, I was getting a lot of replies asking me what I was talking about when I said that Parker is recovering well from his hospital stay. So I decided to blog about the story from the beginning.

It all started back at the end of April, Jeff's dad had a heart attack and had surgery to clear blockage on one side only to find out that the other side is 90% blocked. Then within a few days of that, my grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and has elected not to have any treatment. So just as we were hit with a bunch of bad news, Parker wakes up feeling warm. Of course, I put off taking his temp thinking it's just the warmth of a newborn and go about our day. I take Peyton to McDonalds with plans to go the grocery store afterwards. I realize after lunch that I have forgotten my list and have to go home first. I get home and decide that Parker definitely feels warmer and just isn't himself, so I take his temp and much to my surprise, it's 102. I call the pediatrician and they say that any baby under 8 wks with a temp above 101 needs to go to the ER and will be admitted.

Of course this freaks me out and with repeated attempts to get ahold of Jeff (who is at work) I'm unsuccessful and get ahold of my mom to come with me. While sitting in the ER I feel really dumb for asking my mom to come, all the while thinking "you're an adult now, grow up and start doing things by yourself". (I rely on my mom for everything!) Anyway, as the pediatric dr. comes in and proceeds to tell me that my 6 wk old needs to have a urine test (via a catheter), a few blood tests, an IV inserted, AND a spinal tap done, I start bawling and am never more glad to have my mom with me!!! If you're a mom, I'm sure you can just imagine how heartwrenching it is to watch and listen to your baby go through all this, esp when they have to do the spinal tap twice and the IV took 6 failed attempts until we said "That's enough! Find another way to give him antibiotics". So he was given an antibiotic shot every 24hrs for 3 days.

After spending Sat and Sunday there we were under the impression that if the 24 hr cultures came back negative that we would be able to go home late Sunday. Well, not so. Apparently the CHOP drs differ on opinions as to when the babies should be allowed to go home. It turns out that after about 30 hrs or so, the cultures came back positive for Strep A (strep throat virus), but his was in his blood rather than actually forming Strep throat. BUT, they weren't sure if the test had been contaminated by bacteria either from someone's skin in the lab or from Parker's skin, so they had to repeat the test to make sure it wasn't anything more serious. So we had to spend ANOTHER 24hrs there till the results of that test came back. Finally on Tues morning we were able to come home after 4 long days in one tiny room. He was on antibiotics for 14 days after he came home and is doing much better! The poor little guy went through so much in his first 7 wks. Not only did he have to go through all that at the hospital, he has really bad acid reflux and we are now working on our 2nd kind of medicine to see if this helps any better.

Here are some pics of him in the hospital

The cords are a monitor that he has hooked to him to watch his heart and oxygen levels. He did so great in the hospital and was busy flirting with his mommy and all the nurses!

This swing was a life saver! He slept in it and bought me a couple of hours of sleep myself.

Joining the blogging world...

So I was asked by a friend to start a blog and I got to thinking that it might just be a good idea since everyone is always asking about the boys and to see pictures of them. This way I can get some "me" time to vent and stalk other people's blogs and our family and friends can see what the boys are up to. :)

So here it is... my pink blog for my two boys. Hey, every girl needs a little pink, especially when you are surrounded by all testosterone at home. Maybe one day I'll get a girl... :) Jeff wants one now. Crazy right? Another baby is just what we need to get our 3 yr old to stop sreaming at us and telling us "NO!" with every step he takes.

For those of you with 2 kids, does the sreaming and constant defiance that's a result of bringing another member into the family, ever stop? I feel like Peyton spends more time in "time out" than he does anything else.