Raising a Super hero................

Jayce and I took a look at his baby book today.
At 2:21 PM on November 26, 2003, I had a new little boy to raise.
By 10:00 that evening, I had a very sick little baby, and it was very possible that he would not live through the night.
This is when the first IV was placed in his little foot and he spent the night under the "lights", fighting off jaundice. The jaundice we could handle. Its treatable. It was the questionable blood counts that were frightening. My pediatrician is in Texas for the Thanksgiving break, so the "on-call" pediatrician recommends feedings every 2 hours with supplements. So like clock work I walk to the nursery every two hours and feed my baby the bottle that they have warmed to the perfect temperature and added the supplements for me- I can hold him while he eats then its back in the baker for my boy.
On Friday, the day I hoped to take him home, we learn that he is not maintaining a normal blood-sugar level, and the bili continues to rise. Saturday, the same. No improvement. Sunday, same story, with no hope for answers any time soon.
Monday, our pediatrician returns. Bless him! He takes a stab in the dark and orders x-rays on the babies chest and belly. The spots he finds in the intestinal track are not normal, so he consults with an Intestinal Specialist and gets the baby on the medication that will treat the infection that is lingering in his little body. 48 hours without feedings, 48 hours of IV's and needles and foul smelling medications.
He begins to improve and we are able to leave the hospital with our child 9 days after his birth- first stop- Primary Childrens Hospital. Quick out patient surgery for a pic line so he can continue the meds at home. He gets his first cherry Popsicle. That's what they give 9 day old babies after surgery- wakes them up. Then the home nurse visits and instructs a frantic mom. Another blessing, to have a paramedic for a husband, because I could not get myself to administer the meds. A trip to the hospital every day for the next 7 days to have blood drawn from his already sore heels. What an adventure. A look at this book always reminds me how blessed we are. I am so thankful for miracles!
Jayce, however, does not think this is a miracle- this was "a SUPER HERO intervention". The original IV was to replace the people blood with Super Hero fluid. Sometimes the fluid makes a baby body tired and then the doctors think they are sick. Also, the Super Hero isn't used to baby food so the nurses sneak the stuff in so that moms don't realize that they are really feeding the baby super hero potions. The super hero will die if the mom doesn't let the nurses do it, so they sneak. The lights that our super hero lay under for countless hours are not really lights at all- they are magnetic bone re-placers, taking the bone from the tiny body and replacing it with a "magnetic structure" and it takes time! The x-rays ordered by the doctor- not x-rays at all. That's when they put the x-ray vision into his brain. The only really strange thing is that they normally don't give "super hero" babies to moms that have wrinkles- this is quite puzzling to him.

So when his "magnetic structure" slams into the wall, because of the magnetic pull (hey, it happens!) I can calmly look away. This is normal "super hero" behavior. He cant help it. He has to learn to live with it.
When his laser eyes see things that don't exist in my world- I just shrug my shoulders and smile.
There's a lot I don't know about Super Hero's. What I do know is this- When I walk into the room and my little man is kneeling down, head bowed, asking his Heavenly Father to help him to be strong- That's when I know for sure I am raising a Super Hero!

Dreams really do come true!

While I was jogging on the treadmill yesterday, Ross grabbed Jayces little electric toy guitar (kinda like a ukulele) and strummed away while singing a lovely love song.

If I use my imagination, this could kinda be like jogging on the beach, out in the sun, with my sweetie singing sweet tunes of love-

kinda-

No, not really. But I am glad we got the ukulele and singing part out of the way- a few minutes of that was enough for me. Now, all we need is some sunshine!!

A girl can dream..............

Just chill for a few seconds.........wait for the music to start-

Is it playing?

Now imagine yourself lying on a private beach, nothing but sunshine for days and days,
no job, no house to clean, no fighting kids.

AHHHH! That's just the kind of break I am in need of!

So, for my upcoming anniversary- 24 years with my sweetie- this is my dream, my little fantasy- Ross is playing the ukulele and singing sweet tunes about love- I am eating fresh coconut and soaking up the sun- AHHHHHHHHHH!

A girl can dream!

The reality is that IF we are lucky we will drive to St George where Ross will spend most of his time hitting balls at the golf course and I will be listening to Bay and Jayce fighting over some stupid game or movie-

Dream........................

Happy New Year!

I love the beginning of a "New Year"- the fresh start feel is awesome- but really, I just LOVE having the kids home and the "nothing-to-do" feeling. The kids are content-
Ross has had two full weeks home- with his phone attached to his ear- but physically present for the holiday's.

Our Christmas Family Tradition is to open Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve- everyone changes into their jammies and we decorate cookies for Santa and then watch a movie together. On Christmas morning we have breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Fowlks and open gifts- I am embarrassed to admit that Grandma and Grandpa woke us up at 8:30 Christmas morning-- we enjoyed our Christmas Eve celebrations so much that we went to bed WAY late and the kids were in no hurray to get up! I love these traditions, but I can see that this will change over the years to come- two of our children have their own families now and will want to form their own traditions. It is exciting and sad all at the same time to see your family grow and change- I have really, really great kids! They have chosen really, really great spouses. AND I have the CUTEST grand baby in the entire world!- We have many blessings, but all that really matters is the love we have for our families!

So- from my family to yours- we hope your year is filled with love and happiness!

BACON for Breakfast

Baylie slept on the family room couch last night. Today is the first day of Christmas vacation, which means Jayce is up bright an early and ready to party!
He asks Ross if we can make Bacon for breakfast- and as we begin he has this sneaky little grin on his face and says-
"I am going to hook a string on the bacon and dangle it in front of Baylies nose! That's the best way to get her off the couch! Trust me!"

The frightening truth is that this is a pretty good idea- and it just might work!
Bay does love her food. Ask Jayce what he wants to be when he grows up and he'll say he wants to be "a pig, just like Baylie."

"I'm smarter than you think I am!"

This is how my days are going lately-
"Hey mom, I just wrote 'today'- see."
I look and it says "towday"
So- being the idiot that I am, I tell him that his word says towday- not today.
"Mom, don't you think I know how to spell tow? Its T-O-E. Gosh, I'm smarter than you think I am!" and he storms out of the room.

A few minutes later he returns and asks "5 plus 5 is ten, right?"
Yep, I say- "Well then how come when I add 8 and 2 it makes ten?"
I think to myself that I may have an opportunity here to show my little man my mean math skills! I take out 10 candy's from the dish and show him how many different numbers we can add that equal 10. He's slightly impressed- I can tell because he keeps saying "cool dude" over and over! He asks if this works with all the numbers-
Yep, I say- and he's off!
He pokes his head in a few minutes later and says "Mom, sometimes your smarter than you look!"
Score one for me!

"Hey, I'm six now!"

Ive heard this over and over again for a few weeks.
"Hey I'm six now and I don't need to take a bath (or a shower)."
"Mom, I'm six now so you don't need to hug me so much."
"I'm six so I don't want your help."
You get the idea-
HE IS SIX NOW SO HE CAN DO ALMOST ANYTHING!
I'm so happy, because I'm 43 and I'm tired:)
Here's a few pictures from the birthday party. His actual birthday was on Thanksgiving day so we took a Pinata to Shontells and had some party fun with the little ones.