Memorial Day

Other than the fact that Matt was not at school, today was pretty much like any other day.  Well, except that we had a new little grill to play with and I took far more pictures than was even remotely necessary.

I don't think anyone would be surprised by that though.

Anyway.

Sometime this morning Matt unpacked our new little grill from the box.  We found it on sale at Target for the bargain price of only $15 and figured, what the heck, for that price, we just need to have it.  Just think of all the cookouts and tailgates we could have with a handy little, travel sized grill like that.  Plus, they had it in red... scarlet to be specific.  And how much more GO BUCKS can you get than that?

This morning Matt set to work assembling the thing.  Peter did his best to help.

And by help, I mean he scattered the pieces everywhere and tried to eat the tools.

Brutus, apparently, couldn't have cared less.  He was probably just pleased Peter was busy doing something besides terrorize his dog for a short while.

After his nap, we dressed Peter up in his little patriotic outfit, and I must say, he looked marvelous.

Then Daddy figured out that he could plug his iPhone into the television and make YouTube videos of the Muppets play WITHOUT Peter being able to drool all over the keyboards on our computers.  Peter, seemed very excited to see the Muppets on his big screen TV and settled down, um, comfortably to watch.

Comfort, is a very personal thing you see.

Peter helped Daddy find lots of different Muppet videos to watch, and then they watched them together.

(Mama watched too, and took lots of pictures.)

In the afternoon we were talking on Skype with Matt's mother and grandmother.  I kept trying to get Peter to smile big enough that they could see all his top teeth, but he wouldn't so finally I just did this.  (Poor child's gonna need braces and he isn't even one yet!)

Then, shortly before dinnertime, it was time to fire up our little grill and prepare our little Memorial Day feast.  I don't really have any family memories of celebrating these "lesser" holidays, so its important to me that we make traditions from the start to always do something a little special for each holiday as a family that will draw us closer together.  For Memorial Day, this naturally means Bar-B-Que!!

Peter was upstairs napping, and while Matt and I sat on the back patio and waited for the coals to heat up, we noticed Brutus freaking out more than usual back in the corner of our yard. 

He was trying very hard to cram his little face between the end of the fence and the garage wall, so eventually I went to investigate to see what the stink was all about.

And I must say I was surprised by what I saw.  On the opposite side of the fence, this little black gopher was just sitting there, staring my dog down through the cracks in the fence. 

Now, believe me when I tell you that gophers are EVERYWHERE in our neighborhood and they do a pretty darn good job of annoying the heck out of every dog I know.  Mostly though, you just see their piles of dirt everywhere, and occasionally their open holes.  Sometimes you even see them sticking their little Hamster looking faces out of those holes.  What I've NEVER seen (until now) though, is one of the little rodents just sitting there, in broad day light, away from its hole, completely exposed.

It was very odd.

But eventually, it went away and Brutus relaxed back to his own, "normal," everyday version of crazy.

Incidentally, it was right around the time Matt put our steaks on the grill.

Brutus suddenly found this much more interesting than any gopher, notice his little tongue licking his chops hungrily as he watches....

(He didn't even get one bite though, the poor little beast.  All he got was to lick our plates, IT WAS THAT GOOD, but I'm getting ahead of myself....)

Around the time the steaks started cooking, Peter got up from his nap and joined us again.

He sat on my lap and watched our little red grill puff smoke and cook our dinner.

And every few minutes, Matt checked on our steaks.

Meanwhile, KC that terribly strange cat of ours came wandering outside.  He does that pretty much any time we leave the back door open so that he can eat grass.  Then he nearly always goes back inside and promptly vomits all the grass back up all over my carpet someplace. 

But he didn't do that today.  No, instead he scampered out to the back corner of the yard...

...and peed on one of the gopher piles.

Heeheehee. 

Peter seemed to find this very funny.

Okay, no he didn't, because I'm sure he had no idea what was going on, but it just so happens that the next picture I snapped after the one of KC was this one of Peter making this odd little face. At least you can see all those teeth of his, even if he does look a bit, um, sinister.

And, okay, so this next one is TOTALLY random, but actually, that describes just how things went down, so just go with it please.  Matt was still cooking the steaks, and I had to go to the bathroom.  Since I knew Matt couldn't safely grill and hold the baby I took Peter and put him in his Pack and Play for a moment.  But of course, Peter HATES his pack and play (AKA, the baby prison) and I guess he immediately started hollering to get out.  Naturally Daddy came a-running and for some reason grabbed the bean bag and decided to do this:

...to entertain our son and make him forget his prisoner status. 

Yea, I have no idea why either.

I guess it worked though, because when I returned from the bathroom Peter sure wasn't crying.

But whatever.

Not long after that our little feast was ready:

Fruit Salad, home made Potato Salad and those yummy little steaks.

Delicious!!

Oh, and naturally, we had this sitting around for afterward.

So while Matt fed Peter, I roasted up a few marshmallows over the last heat of the charcoal....

And made us some of Earth's finest treats....

Of course, babies under one aren't really allowed to eat chocolate and they probably don't need the sugar in a marshmallow, so Peter just munched on the graham crackers.  It was the first time he'd ever had them though, so I think it was a special treat for him.

And that left plenty of the actual S'mores for Matt and I to enjoy.

YUM!

I'd say our first little Memorial Day cookout was a success, small and humble though it may have been.  :)

And after dinner, I FINALLY was able to get a few snaps of Peter doing his new favorite thing, driving his little cars around the house.  :)

So Sweet!

Allll-most walking

Okay, well, this video is a couple of weeks old as well. (Sorry!) It was originally shot on May 17, which was within a few days of when Matt first caught Peter toddling along beside him (or me) while only holding on with one hand.

Unfortuanately, the video was sideways, and it took me FOREVER to find a program that would allow me to rotate it. (This is a common problem amoung blogging Mamas I've noticed, so ladies if your on a PC, check to see if you have the program "Windows Live Movie Maker" on you're computers as I was able to rotate the video using that. I'm not sure if the older versions of this program have this capability, because this is a new computer featuring Windows 7, but its worth a shot at least, and in the past I've used the Windows Movie editing program with a great deal of success for other videos, but have never needed to rotate stuff before.)

Anyway, here is some cutie footage of my almost walker from about 2 weeks ago. (Please excuse the obnoxious sound of my voice, I'm convinced something with the hormones screws with your vocal cords for about 3 years after giving birth making you sound like a ninny whenever you talk to your child...)

#2's First Ultrasound

Have I mentioned lately that I'm totally behind on blog updates?

Well, yea, sorry about that.

Anyway, back on May 10th I had my first doctor's appointment of this pregnancy, including my first chance to catch a glimpse of our second child via ultrasound. Unfortunately the only appointment available was when Matt had class so one of my friends volunteered to come along for moral support and to take some video to show Daddy afterward.

I have the still images as well, but since I got this new computer we *still* haven't managed to get the scanner back up and running. (That's why this is so late, I was waiting for the scanner. Yeah, sure, that's it.) But, in the interest of getting something up, BEFORE this baby is actually born, I finally just edited down the 10 minute video to something more bloggy-manageable for all to enjoy.

Oh, and for my Mother-in-Law: as you can see the baby was TINY and therefore the Doc was completely unable to make predictions as to the gender. So, NO, I am not lying to you about knowing. Although, even when we do find out (in a couple more months,) we're still not going to tell you anyway, because, well, it's just too much fun to leave you wondering. :)

Tear Duct Surgery

I mentioned awhile ago that our Pediatrician "finally" sent us over to a Pediatric eye doctor/surgeon for a consultation after roughly 9 months of my son having a perpetually clogged tear duct and a resulting, continually infected, "goopy eye."

The docs all swear to me that this sort of thing isn't genetic, but Peter has at least one uncle and a couple of cousins who's medical history says otherwise. 

Anyway, the Pediatrician, also swears to me that this sort of thing is fairly common, but that only in very rare, very extreme cases should surgery be sought.  And, to support her point, several of my mommy-friends have struggled with similar goopy eyed children, and many have indeed been blessed to have things clear up on their own.

But, then again, many other of my mommy-friends (and relatives) have children who needed the surgery.

So basically, I bugged our pediatrician until she agreed to send us for the consult, because seriously he has had one eye infection, after another, since he was 2 weeks old.  And then, (I kid you not) all I did was leave a voicemail for the doctor's secretary after our consult, inquiring about "if" we were to go ahead and schedule the procedure, how soon might it happen.

I waited a few days for her to return my call, we played phone tag a bit, and then the next, well, actually the first time I spoke with her, the Eye Doctor/Surgeon's secretary lady informed me that Peter was schedule to have to procedure performed today.

Alrighty then.

(Now mind you I found this out about two weeks ago, and am just now getting around to writing about it.)

But still, how we went from playing phone tag, to having the procedure scheduled and "Oh, by the way he'll need to see your pediatrician for a physical 4 days before the procedure and your insurance company already approved everything and please just mail me back this completed paperwork when you get it because we'll see you a week from Monday..."  well, that, I'll never really know.

And sure, I could have cancelled it if I'd been uncomfortable, or whatever...  but the truth is, unexpected as it was for me to find out my 10 month old was scheduled for surgery (a minor, out patient procedure, but a surgical one nonetheless,) I was and am SO ready to be done fighting with that goopy eye.

That eye... *sigh*

Still, I was nervous.  General anesthesia, in any way, shape or form, TERRIFIES the snot out of me.  I blame my 12th grade Anatomy teacher who had us read several articles on living wills and redefining death with all the medical science breakthroughs, and in those articles, nearly every "comatose" patient had gotten that way after an error with general anesthesia..   (SHUDDER!)

Happily, Peter was scheduled to go in at 7:30 am, which meant Matt would be able to be there too, and hold my hand, while I tried to be brave for our son.  (Matt mostly just rolled his eyes at me when he thought I wasn't looking, and wondered what on earth I was getting so upset about.)

Anyway, I didn't get too many pictures.  Just enough to show the boy when he gets older.  And trust me, the sane, rational part of my brain knows that we are TREMENDOUSLY blessed to have son, who, in nearly 11 months, has only gotten sick twice (bronchitis and a sinus infection) and who's only lasting diagnosis have included a bizaaro type of eczema that only really seems to affect the back of his calves and a clogged tear duct.  Because, seriously, NO kid is actually perfect.  They all have SOMETHING wrong with them, just fortunately, usually, whatever it is, is thankfully pretty minor.

And, seriously, let me say this now, once and for all:

PRAISE YOU LORD FOR GIVING OUR BABY HEALTH!  AND MAY IT ONLY LAST!!!!

But still, he needed the procedure and it was scary (mostly for me, but also a little for him, and thank goodness, he really won't remember.)

PRE-OP

Since Mommy has alternating between an odd need to take pictures to remember this morning and hysterics, Daddy did most of the work getting Peter out of his footie pajamas and into his little hospital gown and silly socks (they only had child size, so his turned into knee socks.)

All dressed and ready, but ready for what?

Daddy and Peter, this would be after the nurse put the cardio monitor stickers on and Peter managed to disconnect most of them immediately, which is why the screen reads a flat line...

Mommy sucked up her tears long enough to give love too...

A few minutes later, after the nurses, and anesthesiologist and the doctor had all come to meet us and answer our questions the nurse came back and carried Peter away.

Matt and I went to the waiting room.  I felt very sick to my stomach.

So naturally, I was in the bathroom when they came and got us to tell us they were done. 

POST-OP

When I caught up, maybe a minute later, Matt had Peter moaning on his shoulder, and the doc, nurse and anesthesiologist were all standing by to watch him wake up.

We'd been warned that though he was only going to be asleep for about 15 minutes, and only use gas, that babies feel frightened and disoriented when they wake up, so naturally they scream their little heads off.  Peter, mellow child that he might normally be, was living up to the stereotype.  I didn't get any more pictures of him then because my mommy instincts took over and I pried my son off his father, gave him his blankie and his bunny and began to rock him and kiss him until he opened his eyes all the way.

As soon as he did that we were allowed to give him a bottle.  That helped a lot, but he was still really sad.

After his bottle, Peter was just sort of laying in my arms moaning, although, otherwise, he was fine.  The nurse quickly determined that the best course of action would be to get him dressed back in his own comfy jammies, and out of that dreaded little room with too many bright lights and too many noises and get him home.  So that is what we did.

In the car, with me in the backseat beside him, he wasn't exactly happy, but he was okay.

But, I bet you'd also like to hear how the procedure went.  Well, the doc told me while Peter was taking his bottle that it went well, and had definitely been a good call.  The plan had only been to probe the right tear duct, because that's where the infections had always been, but he said that when he looked in there, it was clear that the left side was actually blocked about 50% too.  So he probed both sides.  He said he had a little trouble with the right side, because Peter has had so many eye infections that there was quite a bit of scar tissue.  This means that where there is normally a 90% chance that probing the duct will open it permanently, he would estimate that Peter's right side only has about a 70% chance of staying open, without another procedure, or another type of procedure where they run a small tube through the duct and leave it there for a a few months to ensure it heals "open."

I have mixed feelings about this.  To begin with, I feel better about insisting to the pediatrician about getting a  surgical consult, since apparently, in Peter's case, there was very little likelihood that it would have ever opened on its own.  And at the same time I am SUPER annoyed that we waited until 9 months to seek the consult, since CLEARLY if we'd gone sooner there might have been less scar tissue and we might have a greater chance at success this time.

Then again, I thrived on 70 percentss in high school and a lot of college, and I turned out (mostly) okay, so maybe I like those odds just fine for now.

And I've been praying for a successful outcome anyway, so I guess I'll just have to keep at it a while longer.... the doc says in about a week we should be able to tell fairly well how it is healing... open or closed.

Peter, for his part, seems no real worse for the wear.  He's been more mellow today, and snugglier, which I can't say I mind at all.  He took two LONG naps and hasn't driven the dog nearly as crazy as usual today.  

The only real different is there is no puss coming from the kid's right eye.  Instead, it has been replaced with runny drops of blood and small scabs, and also some small bits of blood come out of his nostrils.  All of this is normal for his recovery, I called the doc to check this afternoon. :) 

I love you Peter.  Thanks for being brave today, and awesome, like always.  

Another day at the pool

Since I'm still playing catch up here on the pictures, a few weeks back, while my friend Olivia was here, the weather was actually gorgeous and WARM for like, two days.  Seriously, I got a sunburn.  And if you're wondering what on Earth I'm talking about, sometime when you're bored, look up the weather on California's Central Coast.  Ugh.  I believe they call it "moderate," and frankly, it is NOT for me.  What is the point of it getting cold if its never going to get cold ya know (I think we lowed out in the 40s this winter) and since I am a summer baby by birth and in my heart, I love SUMMER and I love warm weather, 65-70 degrees, with thick clouds and a harsh breeze really does not do it for me here in the so-called summer!

Anyway, like I was saying, a few weeks ago, for just about 2 days, we had a glimpse of some real summer weather.  So naturally, we went to the pool... even if it is indoors.

And since Olivia was here, she got some great pictures of me and the boy.  :)

Chubby little baby legs, chubby little baby feet and chubby little baby toes... my favorite!!!

Sweetness!

How do you like my hair?

"Gnom, gnom, gnom!  I've got your toes!!"

I guess he's ready to go....

Snug as a bug in a... er... bath towel.  :)

Lastly, I have NO CLUE why the picture uploader keeps rotating this picture so that it is upside down, but with Peter all bundled in the towel, I took a quick minute to flip up Peter's top lip to give Olivia a glimpse at all those top teeth (I think then he had 3 of the 4 center ones.) 

This picture is mostly for the Grandparents who continually ask me about the boy's teeth.

 (Since then he has cut the 4th and missing center one, plus another on the bottom and one of his out teer incisors on top too....)