Too Soon

I just found out this morning that a little boy in Gwen's class at preschool died from the croup on Monday. We are totally heartbroken - as many sad stories as I have heard about friends of friends, etc. I have never experienced the death of a child that I knew. I found out at Darcy's gymnastics class and cried like a baby the entire class because it hit me so close to home. We have been to the emergency room twice with croup, and both times they told us to put them in the shower, take a drive outside with the windows down, etc. and we've left feeling like the emergency room was a waste of time. Well apparently, Ayden's family did all the right things. He woke up at midnight coughing, and his dad put him in the shower, drove him around, etc. until around 5:00 in the morning. At about 5:00, exhausted, he fell asleep on the couch with Ayden in his arms. When he woke up just a short time later, Ayden was already gone. The poor little boy was one of Gwen's good friends and just had his 3rd birthday last week. It just doesn't seem fair that something like that can happen, with no warning and no chance to even fight it. And what really scares me is that I feel like it could have been one of my kids. Apparently, Ayden had the croup before, so his parents probably figured they knew the drill, just like we do. Anyway, I am just totally freaking out and can't stop thinking about it. Gwen was home sick today, so I had to tell her about it myself. Luckily, her first reaction was, "But Mommy, when Ayden's family goes up to live with God, they'll all be together again.". But then she asked if Ayden's brother also went to live with God, and when I said no, she said, "But he will miss him!", and that about broke my heart.

Sometimes I just feel like I'm not old enough to be making decisions that could have life or death implications on my children. I don't want that responsibility. Because, although I may have heard the phrase "she died of a broken heart", I didn't realize until I had kids how it could literally happen.

Happy Birthday!

First, to my friend Andrea from high school - Happy Birthday! Andrea is one of my best friends and also my first official bday of 2008, and my first chance to really get my New Years Resolution off to a good start. Unfortunately, my cards were horribly ugly, and I couldn't bring myself to send even one! But once I get good ones made, she will be the first recipient. I don't have a picture of Andrea on my new computer, but here is a picture of her adorable little girl, Juliana, taken by ME!!!


The second Happy Birthday goes to our dog, Piper who is 6 years old this week! We thought we were going to lose Piper a few weeks ago, and so we are happy and relieved to see this birthday come along. Piper has seizures, and a few weeks ago she couldn't stand up or anything for over 24 hours and we thought it was another seizure, so we called the vet. She said it sounded very bad and to bring her in, but there was probably already brain damage, etc. Anyway, Lance brought her to the vet late at night and we both kind of thought she might not come home. Luckily for us, it was some infection, also brain-related, but not a seizure. While we haven't gotten any official testing done yet, we both strongly suspect (as does the vet, etc.) that she has a brain tumor which is causing all the neurological problems. So, we are just grateful for the time we have with our first little girl!!! Happy Birthday Piper, we love you!!!

Snowshoeing

Went snowshoeing this morning with a group of ladies for the second Monday in a row. Started with 3 of us last week and our group grew to 5 already this week. Mostly ladies that I've met through church, Darcy's gymnastics, and a few I didn't know. It was so much fun and so great to get out and move! At 28 weeks pregnant, I am able to keep up with the others, so I'm proud of that. The big difference is that 1) I am huffing and puffing a lot louder than anyone else, and 2) it takes me almost the whole week to recover!! I am really excited about some of the women I met too - I am starting to get to know a lot of people, but don't feel like I have a lot of "friends" yet. I am hopeful though.

Last week we saw a moose! Sounds fun, except that apparently moose can be aggressive and can run 40 miles per hour. Luckily, they are normally not interested in people. Nevertheless, I was glad when we were safely past!!

The Girls' New Room

The girls are sharing a room in our new house, which is so fun. Until a few weeks ago, they were in the room that will be the nursery, but now they are all moved into the big girl room upstairs. They love it! Things are going really well and I have to say that I think it is the cutest room ever.

Part of this new room involved Darcy moving to a "Big Girl Bed". For those of you with only one child, here is a classic example of the difference between parenting Child #1 vs. Child #2. With Gwen, we were worried that there would be long term emotional trauma stemming from the new baby "stealing" her crib, etc. So we went through an elaborate transition process involving the book "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", setting up her bed right next to her crib to help her feel secure, and then letting her choose for each bedtime and naptime which bed she wanted (crib or bed) until she was completely weaned off of her crib... For Darcy, we unveiled the new room and after playing for a few minutes said "Darcy this is your bed". She got up in the bed to check it out. Lance and I looked at each other and said "Ok Darcy, you are going to sleep here. Good night." and left the room, crossing our fingers. And guess what??? No trauma. I don't even think she will be in therapy over this. Who would've thought?

Darcy Loves Me

Today Darcy said "I Love You" to me and I got the impression that she kind of knew what she was saying!!!!! I was in her face kissing her nose and I told her I loved her. Then she looked at me with lots of love in her eyes, touched my nose and said "I wuv you" with a smile. It was so cute! Then she kept saying it over and over. It just melts your heart when your little ones do stuff like that. The other day I said to Gwen, "I love you. Do you know that?" and she said "MOM, yes, I know that because you tell me 50 hundred million times everyday!". Partially, I can't help myself, but partially I probably say it so much b/c she always says it back and its just the best feeling in the world : )

Yes, its -15 degrees outside, but its a dry cold...

Good thing we have a nice warm, cozy house and a fireplace! We need it this week!

New Year's Resolutions

I only have a few, but I will be very happy if I can stick with them!

1. I WILL send out birthday cards this year! Every year I buy a new planner and transfer all my bdays. In 2007, I walked around ALL YEAR with a post-it note on my planner that said "transfer birthdays from 2006" and I NEVER did it. I missed everyone, and I am sorry. So this year I am actually making HOMEMADE birthday cards and committing to send them out. I already started, and they are hideous, so I will be starting over soon : )

2. I will stop fantasizing about my cleaning lady from Fayetteville, Sophia. No, I cannot pay to move her up here just so she can clean my house. I will recognize that cleaning my house is a PROCESS, not an end state. As soon as I finish, it begins again, and that is just how it goes. It is my job now, and I must do it with pride. Ugh, that one will be hard.

3. I will continue to try new things and meet new people, keeping an open mind. I feel like I've gotten a good start, but I still have much more I want to do - learn to cross country ski, learn to ski moguls, compete in a trail run and a snowshoe race, etc.

All in all, should be a challenge, but that is what resolutions are for, right?

And So Starts Round 2...

Until this point, Darcy has been my innocent little baby, too young to openly defy her mother. Not that she hasn't thrown tantrums, but she hadn't yet disobeyed me and laughed about it. Now Gwen is a pretty well-behaved girl as far as preschool kids go, but she does throw in the occassional sarcasm (like when she mumbled and I told her to speak English, and she responded with a sassy "HOLA!") or the innocent question that embarassess you ("Why is your tooshie so big?"), etc.

Anyway, last night we were driving home from dinner and Gwen was falling asleep. Darcy was being her normal crazy night-self (she is a total night owl) and I looked back and said, "Shhhhhh" and went back to talking to lance. A few seconds later it registered that Darcy was still yelling. I listened and realized that she was cracking herself up, yelling loudly "I NOT being quiet! I NOT being quiet!" over and over.

At least I still have a good year or two with baby #3 to look forward to...