Sick?

31 Jan 2013 9 Comments

by Natalie in Parenting Battles, What's a mom to do?

I hate going to the doctor. Not because I hate modern-day medicine. But I am a tight wad who hates paying an unnecessary co-pay. And I am really bad at predicting whether an illness is doctor-visit worthy or not.

My youngest son was really sick this week. He was up all night a couple of nights with a really bad fever. Nothing I did could soothe my poor, miserable baby.

After a couple of sleepless nights and I-can’t-stay-awake-for-the-life-of-me-afternoons, I broke down and called the doctor.

And what happened? Absolutely nothing.

I took him in and he was fine. No ear infection. No sore throat. No croup.

Although that is extremely great news, it frustrated the crap out of me.

I can’t tell you how many times my children have been extremely sick during the night and early morning hours, only to make a miraculous recovery right before I take them in to the pediatrician.

I half wonder if my cell phone is magical. It seems like whenever I call to make a doctor’s appointment my children immediately start feeling better.

Then I go back and forth thinking should I cancel the appointment or take them in? It’s like playing physician roulette. .

Normally my guilty conscience talks me into taking them in. That’s what happened on Tuesday. I kept thinking, “What if he really does have an ear infection? What if his ear is burning with pain? What if his eardrum ruptures all because I want to save a buck and keep him home?”

It’s too bad my 6-month-old can’t tell me how he really feels or what really is hurting.

Someone needs to invent a Should-I-Take-Them-To-The-Doctor? kit for moms. It should come with one of those magnified stick-up-the-nose-or-in-the-ear-and-shine-a-light-inside tools. That way I could scan my son’s ears before assuming his new grabbing-at-the-lobe trait is an infection.

It’d also be nice to have a tongue depressor/flashlight combo. Then I could force open his mouth and see how red it really is way back where.

I don’t know how they could do it, but I also would need an is-it-appendicitis? type tummy scanner.

I could use the kit before paying someone else to spend 5 minutes glancing at my child and diagnosing them with a common cold.

I love my kids and I want them to be healthy but I hate feeling like I just gave a doctor $20 for them to tell me to give my child more Tylenol. I am starting to form an opinion that if the doctor can’t fix it, I shouldn’t have to pay.

Especially because usually before I take my kids in, I have already given them Tylenol for two days straight to no avail.

I know that isn’t realistic and deep down I am extremely grateful for my pediatrician. I just get frustrated when one of my babies is really sick yet there is nothing “wrong” with them.

Luckily we are a healthy family who doesn’t visit the doctor very often.

Binky Blues

24 Jan 2013 2 Comments

by Natalie in Parenting Battles, What's a mom to do? Tags: , ,

We are down to one binky at our house. Which means I’m always franticly looking in every nook and cranny for the soothing mouth-sucking device. soothie

I’m constantly on the search for the green hospital-style Soothie that keeps my 6-month-old pacified.

And we all know how well I do when I lose things.

I need to invent a special microchip to plant inside the plastic lining of all binkies. Something that is activated when a baby starts to fuss, sounding off a major alarm and bright flashing beacon, honing all mothers in to the exact location of the life-saving tool.

Of course I’d have to make a different silent-locating system for nighttime. Because although the binky has got to be within a 6-inch radius of my baby’s head, it’s nearly impossible to find in the dark – especially through zombie-style, bloodshot middle-of-the-night vision.

No matter how many times I sweep the crib for the little sucker, I never find it easily. Half the time it’s tucked under my baby’s double chin.

The most frustrating part? Hearing my baby cry while I search for the stupid thing. Because I’m never looking for it while he’s happily playing on his own. I seem to always notice it’s lost when he’s screaming.

And for some reason, it’s virtually impossible for me to crawl beneath furniture and rapidly scan secret corners of my house while I’m carrying around a 20-pound screaming bundle.

It’s a double edge sword. I can put him down and hopefully find the thing much quicker, knowing he will scream at the top of his lungs the whole time I’m searching, or I can run around stressed out with him on my hip while I try to soothe him and search at the same time.

In my defense, the rounded style of the outer part of his binky makes it roll very easily. I could drop it on a flat surface and find it 30 feet away. I do have to admit that 90 percent of the time we find it in one of three places – my pocket, my diaper bag or shoved down in one of the couch cushions.

Why don’t I buy some more? Honestly I don’t know. But deep down I have a sneaking suspicion that no matter how many binkies I would buy, I’d still always be searching for one.

And for some reason my son only likes one particular brand.

I have four perfectly clean, nice, brand new other binkies. But he doesn’t want anything to do with them. They are too short and stubby for him.

A couple of weeks ago I got him to gag on one for an afternoon. I lost his favorite green one in the morning and refused to run to the store for a new one. I thought for sure the green guy would turn up.

I had high hopes that he was starting to adapt to the new style of pacifier. But he was just teasing me.

Once bedtime rolled around, he wanted his favorite one back. He wouldn’t take the new type at all during the night.

It was horrible. I survived the night by acting like his human binky, letting him nurse whenever he made a peep.

Luckily my husband found the old favorite in a toy box the next morning – undoubtedly put there by my four-year-old who helps me lose everything.

I don’t know what to do. I probably should break down and buy a 20 pack of his favorite Soothie kind and stash them in every pocket, bag, bed, blanket, etc.

Although I complain about constantly losing the binky, I wouldn’t want to live without it. That’s why I search like mad when it’s lost.  He doesn’t take it all the time, but when he’s really tired it helps calm him enough so he can sleep. And I definitely want him to sleep.

Deep down, part of me wishes that he were a thumb sucker. I definitely would have a hard time losing that.

How do you spell what?

17 Jan 2013 1 Comment

by Natalie in Parenting Battles, What's a mom to do? Tags: , , , , ,

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I am living in a never-ending spelling bee.

My four year-old son’s new obsession with letters, their sounds and word creation has catapulted all of us into an eternal how-do-you-spell _____________? game.

Sadly, I am slowly going insane.

The questions never cease. I can’t go an hour without him asking me how to spell something at least three times.

It wouldn’t be so bad if I were spelling three-letter, one-syllable words for him.

But it’s not just simple words. It’s not even just one word. Sometimes he asks me to spell complex sentences like, “I like playing with my Furby,” or “Luca is my favorite brother.”

It doesn’t stop at wanting to spell. He’s eager to read too. What does __ __ __ __ say? Is quickly becoming his second favorite phrase.

He’s noticing writing on everything – street signs, cereal boxes, clothing tags, you name it. He wants to know what the whole world is saying.

And deep down I am thrilled.

Luckily the spelling/reading is not falling on deaf ears. He’s soaking it all in like a sponge. He’s also regurgitating 90 percent of it back in verbal or written form.

He’s always toting a notebook and pen, ready and anxious to jot something down.
From hate notes to bad guys, to sentences about Spider-Man, he’s on a writing spree.

And although I am thrilled, sometimes I lose my patience. My brain is tired from spelling the title of every piece of furniture in our home, every type of food in our refrigerator and every character on my son’s favorite television shows. Twice.

But I have devised a plan. Now that he recognizes the alphabet, all 26 letter sounds and how to write each letter, I am going to teach him to spell. Then I’m going to teach him to read.

He can already write, “I love you,” as well as all of our family member’s first names. At Christmas time he learned that S-A-N-T-A spelled Santa and every paper I owned was tagged with the jolly man’s name.

He’s interested, he’s excited and he’s ready.

I figure teaching him is the only way I am going to end this real-life endless spelling bee.

Wish me L-U-C-K.

Bridal Shower Boogers Style

10 Jan 2013 2 Comments

by Natalie in Parties/Showers Tags: , , , , ,

Author’s note: If you are looking to read about a major mishap, check back next week. I am sure something crazy will happen in the next 6 days and I’ll blog about a failed adventure. But last week I actually did something right. Since that doesn’t happen very often, I’m dying to share.

Thank heavens people invent crafting helpers for the homemaking impaired. Otherwise I would not have been able to help with my future sister-in-law’s bridal shower last weekend.

Luckily Internet search engines and my mom’s new cake-pop maker saved the day.

My mother-in-law held a bridal shower last Saturday for my brother-in-law’s fiancé, Aubrey. I was in charge of putting together a treat and some games.

My mom got a Babycakes Cake Pop Maker for Christmas and I had been dying to try it out. So the day before the shower I busted the thing open and dove right in.

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Can I just say, piece of cake?

I had heard horror stories of people baking cakes, crumbling them up only to roll the mess back together with a slab of frosting or cream cheese.

Not in this kitchen.

The Babycakes waffle-iron styled machine helped me whip up some cake balls in no time. The maker came with an instruction brochure that included simple recipes. I tried out the vanilla one – mainly because I had all of the ingredients on hand in my kitchen.

It was easy! With only a handful of ingredients and my 4-year-old’s expert stirring skills, we were good to go.

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I tried to pour a tablespoon full of batter into the non-stick rounded out wells, but that made a mess. So I did what I had read online and filled a Ziploc bag with batter, cut a small tip off the end of the bag and squeezed the remainder of the batter into the maker.

It took about four minutes for a dozen cake balls to golden up. I thought they were beautiful!
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I doubled the recipe and less than an hour later I ended up with just shy of 100 cake balls.

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I frosted the pops later that night after my kids were in bed.

I stuck the lollipop sticks up to about an inch in candy melt then put one pop on each. Then I took them outside in my van and let them sit in the freezing cold weather for 15 minutes.

I brought them back in and dipped them into more candy melt until they were covered. This was the hardest part for me. I lost a couple of the pops as they plopped off of the stick into the frosting. That was fun.

I topped some of the pops with ice cream sprinkles and left some of them plain. Not because I wanted to, but I ran out of frosting. And although I didn’t think they looked very good, my husband said those were his favorite.

I printed and cut out some pennant-style tags to glue to the sticks to make them more festive. They read: Be Marry, Together Forever and Love Me

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It took a little longer to frost the pops than I thought it would. I was planning on running and picking up a bridal shower gift after the pops were done, but by the time I was done I didn’t feel like going out. Not to mention the fact that most of the stores would have been closed anyway.

So, I came up with a “honeymoon fund” jar with a couple of things I had around the house. I saw a couple of these jars on Pinterest and thought they were really cute.

My neighbor gave me a few 2-quart mason jars a couple of years ago. Since I don’t can with jars that big they were collecting dust in my basement. I took one of the jars, cleaned it out and created a tag to tie on the outside. I used some tule, that I also had in my basement, to tie the tag near the top.

On my way to the shower I stopped at the bank and got some change to put in the bottom.

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Now on to the games….

I got this first idea from a friend. You can check out her baby-shower version here.

I cut out white wedding dresses onto cardstock with my Silhouette machine. Then hung them with tiny clothespins onto a ribbon.

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The dresses had the bride and groom’s names with their wedding dates on top. On the bottom I left space for people to write advice for the bride-to-be. I typed up four different prompts to get them started.

The dresses read:
I hope you’re not afraid of …
I hope you laugh at …
Make sure to never …
Make sure to always …

While people were mingling and eating they were able to write their thoughts then pin the dresses back up. At the end of the shower Aubrey read them aloud.

We also played the purse game found here. I was quite shocked when my husband’s aunt single-handedly scored 196 points, blasting out the competition. She impressed all of us by having earplugs in her bag. She won “100 Grand” to put in her purse.

Next we played a fill-in-the blank, mad libs-type game found here. It was really fun to see what fruits and vegetables people would come up with to fill in the letter.

Lastly we played a bridal-shower version of a dice game. I wrapped 20 dollar store kitchen gadgets and placed them in a pile in the middle of the floor. We sat in a circle, taking turns rolling the dice. If someone rolled doubles, they chose a present from the middle.

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After everyone had a present we each unwrapped what we had before starting the next round.

During the next round we rolled the dice for five minutes and if people got doubles they could trade their gadget with someone else’s. It was fun to watch people switch the small trinkets back and forth. Who knew measuring spoons and metal can strainers would be so popular?

Anyway, the shower was a huge success. It was fun to get to know my future sister-in-law better and it gave me a chance to practice my mad crafting skills. Even if I used the help of a cake-pop maker and the Internet to made it all happen!

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Aubrey and me!

What Boogers Taught Me This Year

03 Jan 2013 1 Comment

by Natalie in From My Heart, Uncategorized

It’s been a fun year writing Boogers on the Wall.

Frankly, there have been several times this year that I have wondered what I was going to write about. But it never failed. By the time Thursday rolled around something – my crazy children, a homemaking failure, a motherly stress – would magically occur, inspiring me to write about my adventures in momhood.

Hopefully that continues.

I have learned a lot writing my blog. Here are a few favorite posts/thoughts from 2012.

– I have learned that I don’t need to settle for crappy diapers. After writing about our never-ending blowout situation, I have switched my bum covering tactics. Since changing from the off-brand, store-named diapers, I have tried Costco and Pampers. They both rule! And although they cost a lot more, my coupon and bulk shopping will help offset the cost and we all know that the better diapers will offset my stress.

– I learned that my kids would much rather trap their treats than eat them – especially when it comes to gingerbread men. And although I think I know my children very well, sometimes they truly surprise me.

– I have learned that kids say the darndest things, especially when it comes to politics. And no matter who won, most people I know were energized that young children took interest in this year’s presidential election.

– I learned that I actually don’t like a vast majority of Halloween decorations.  You can keep the creepy crawly, silly skeleton zombie doom and gloom, stuff away from me.

– I learned that the worst part about going on vacation is packing. No matter how well I think I have done I still spend the first 10 minutes of each vacation repacking in my head, going over a mental checklist and deciding if what I forgot is worth turning around for. I have also learned that I am not the only wife/mother out there who has to pack 95 percent of all of our family’s vacation needs.

– I have learned that I can love and honor all four of my baby boys even though right now they don’t all live with me. I have learned that there is hope in dealing with my grief.

– I have learned that even though they sometimes stress me to tears, I love my children more than words can express. They are worth more than anything. Which is why I started my second retirement this past spring. It is also why I chisel away at derby cars and melt beads onto wands. It’s why I rarely sleep more than 3 hours in a row at a time and I regularly wrack my brain for ideas on where they may have misplaced their favorite toys. It’s why I do anything, really.  My family is my life.

– And last, but definitely not least, I learned that sometimes light does come after darkness. After 9 months filled with anxiety, stress and fear, I got to look into the eyes of my fourth beautiful baby boy. He brings me more happiness than I ever thought possible. And as you can see from the picture below, the 6-month, 18-pound bundle of joy is doing quite well.DSC_8230

Here’s to another year filled with kitchen failures and crafting mistakes. Here’s to catching more fish I don’t want to touch and setting up booby traps for more cookies. Here’s to lighting more wish lanterns and placing more headstone decorations.

Here’s to living it up and doing the best I can.

Here’s to wiping more boogers off my walls.