Andy & Jessica

“I want a quote of the day!”

Asher to me, “You’re so pretty to me.”

It was deja vu  the other night.  I came home from work and knew the boys needed to go to the doctor.  They were begging to go.  Andy didn’t think they needed to go so the onus was on me.  I loaded up Jude and Levi and had to struggle to carry them into the walk-in clinic since neither of them really had any strength to walk and I didn’t really have the strength to carry them both in at the same time.  They curled up in balls on the waiting room chairs of their pediatrician.  They were called back fairly quickly, maybe because the clinic didn’t want them coughing or throwing up all over the waiting room.  I didn’t know we’d be there for the next couple hours.  It was discovered that Jude had a severe ear infection.  He took one for the team when they stuck a Q-tip half way into his head to see if he had the flu (thinking they would just be able to avoid testing Levi).  Later, after Levi, who like Jude had a severe ear injection, kept reading low on oxygen, they decided they had to test him with the Q-tip test.  He tested positive for RSV (which is a virus I really hate since it cost us $8,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses when Levi and Asher were hospitalized for it in a same year in which we had $4,000 of out-of-pocket medical expenses for Jude.)  After a nebulizer failed to improve Levi’s oxygen level, I was soon warned about the possibility of admitting Levi to the hospital.  The next thing I knew, the clinic called an ambulance to come get Levi to bring him to the hospital.  This same thing happened when Levi was 22 months old.  Same dad in denial; same walk-in clinic; same kid; same virus; same ambulance ride (except that I couldn’t go with him since I had Jude along for the ride). Everything was the same except that the hospital we wanted was full.  Our 2nd choice hospital was also full.  So, Levi got one of the last beds at the U of M.  His ambulance drivers (Ernie and some other guy) seemed just thrilled to be transporting such a cute little patient.  They seemed to think Levi would be freaked out about riding alone with them, put I knew Levi would enjoy racing Jude and me to the hospital.  And, no surprise, he won.  Thankfully, the hospital stay was just for a day.  While we were told that Levi had a severe ear infection, RSV and pneumonia, it turns out that he was just carrying the RSV virus and not showing any symptoms of it.  He also sounded like he had pneumonia, but the x-ray proved otherwise.  Happy to have everyone home!

Happy anniversary
to my beautiful wife
For ten years and counting
you’ve lit up my life

A decade together
has gone by so fast
it’s hard to believe
the time that has passed

We’ve worked on our house
and made it our home
gone on many trips,
we sure love to roam

And of course to our house
we’ve added great joys
Three wonderful kids
all amazing boys

First up was Jude
who transformed our world
We never would have guessed
the events he unfurled

The worst, of course
has been the brain tumor
But he has also filled our lives
with endless amounts of humor

We can’t forget Titus,
who came along next
His short little life
For us was a test

Though we wish he was here
it turned out alright
Because we got Levi
whose smile a room will alight

That precious little boy
the middle of three,
And don’t you forget
He sleeps with me!

The next one to join us
was our love child Ash
who surprised us all
when our lives were a crash

Our oldest had left
our lives in a daze
who knew in a year
baby bro would amaze?

So here we are now
It has been ten years
We’ve been through so much
both the hurts and the cheers

But let’s not forget
this is just the start
I’m still with you with love
until death do us part

Happy 10th anniversary!

Asher with his nose dripping:  “Boogers  for sale!”

“Mom, I think it’s cool, but kind of embarrassing, that we still have our Christmas tree up.”

On the way to music tonight Jude was chatting my ear off.  He said, “Mommy,” to which I responded, “Yes, Sweetie.”  Then he said, “I don’t have any more questions, I just want to talk.”

On Sunday during children’s church to a kid in his class who obviously believed in Santa and was talking about Santa, “SANTA CLAUS IS NOT REAL!”

So, for the past 7-1/2 years, I’ve been playing a game that I call musical beds.  Basically, it involves me laying down with the kids in their beds until they fall asleep, sneaking back into bed with Andy, and then laying down again with the kids during their night awakenings.  All 3 of the kids wake up during the night.  Jude and Asher are convinced that I sleep with them the entire night.  I never know where I will end up and I sometimes don’t remember how I got there.  These days, Jude sleeps in a queen-sized bed in the “airplane room”; Asher sleeps on a twin-sized mattress on the floor of the airplane room and Levi (who used to sleep on the crib mattress at the end of our bed, gets transferred sleeping into the toddler bed in the turquoise room).

Last night, it was musical beds gone bad, really bad.  I got the kids to bed, snuck back to my real bed and was fast sleep.  Sometime in the middle of the night (I have no idea when), I heard Jude calling for me and I dutifully jumped up and went across the hall to snuggle up with him in his queen-sized bed.  I plopped myself on Jude’s queen-sized bed and landed in a giant pool of Jude’s vomit.  I was covered from head to toe in stinky, wet, chunky vomit.  Meanwhile, Jude was across the hall, cleaning himself up from his surprise gut attack.

“I pick your boogers and you pick my boogers.”