[with Arnold's inflection]"It's NOT a tumor"

With a great sigh of relief, we say, "It's not a tuma' ". Somehow that doesn't translate as well in the blog, but watch Kindergarten Cop and you'll know what I mean.
Saturday we went to the beach for a bit of freezing cold fun (forgot my camera, can you believe it?!?), and I took Sophie back to the car to feed her. We were done, but didn't want to go back out in the wind, so I let her play with car parts. She was enthralled with the clothes hook that pops out of the ceiling, so as she was standing on my legs, I was holding her under her arms so she could reach. Suddenly I felt a hard spot on her chest.
Of course I feel around a bit...luckily no more lumps (but, isn't one enough?). All weekend I fret and worry, and when the dr's office opens at 10am, I am the first to call! We've been there so often lately, I feel like Dr. Greg is close family! But, they let us come back again, anyway (unlike family, haha) - tonight at 5:40 pm.
Last week at the "oh my gosh she's having some weird lung disorder" appointment, Sophia weighed 16 lb 12 oz and tonight she weighed 17 lb 10 oz. Of course tonight they left on her cute jean shortalls and onesie. Did anyone know denim weighed that much?!? Just thought I'd share that little aside.
Long story short, and you smart people who read the title and first line know that my freak out was all for naught. Apparently, this is a "common" issue in infants. The doctor was very reassuring and glad to give us good news, and his verbatim advice on the checkout sheet: "Don't worry about the breast bud." (Please don't ask me what that is, look it up on WebMD or something!)
We're just SO darn thankful that she doesn't have cancer or some other terribly taxing disease (especially with the job situation and pre-existing condition worries!). We know we're lucky to have such healthy kids, and even more thankful to have happy, entertaining, and lovable kids! Thank you God, for the big blessings, too!

The waiting is over, and has just begun

The day we've been anticipating without any joy has finally arrived: Chip is no longer employed. They called it a layoff and blamed the good Gov'ner ($150 million loss in revenue next year made ZPS a "bit" nervous), so it went much better than it could have, but it's still a blow to our finances as well as Chip's ego. He's been uplifted by several people for whom he served in the way of references, but after 8 1/2 years of working together, two people in his department didn't even acknowledge that he left and the other 2 didn't even say goodbye. These were people Chip considered friends, at least up until a few weeks ago...
The good news is he's already had a couple of calls from resumes he sent out, so we wait again for something to REALLY pan out. There are just so many things to consider:
Q)with the MI job market, where else in the US should we look?
A)Florida appears to be very low in unemployment and Chip is enamored with the climate, so that's choice #2, then Nashville, New York, and who knows where else?
Q) should I look for a job? Full-time or part-time? Here or in another market?
A) I don't know the answer to these - you tell me! (even though I am looking around here; there are many more opportunities for me here, but I'm not "good for" as much money...)
Those are just a sample of questions. There are so many more to consider, and it overwhelms me when I try to answer more than 1; sometimes even 1!!!
So now that the shoe has dropped, we wait for the other one as we put our lives in the hands of One Who Knows What Is Best.

Tight-Fittin' Genes

Everyone who sees Sophia lately seems to comment on how much she looks like her brother. It's funny - on the one hand, I totally agree (how can you NOT when you look at these pictures? Sean is about 6 months old in the picture to show the two of them at a similar age), but on the other hand, I have some odd urge to point out how much she looks like I did (the old faded picture). AND...Chip isn't the odd one out - there are definitely things about both kids that are Wibert-y (note the hairline). There just aren't many pictures of either one of us as babies to prove what we looked like as babies. I've posted here just about everything I know of in that regard...of course, none of it really matters because we are all just our own people with our own personalities (take them or leave them, of course). It's just neat to see how the gene pool melds similarly, and very interesting to be able to see what contributions even generations before us seem to make to our offspring.

So what do you think? I think our "tight-fittin genes" make some pretty cute kids, either way!

Our eventful couple of days

So...perhaps you will recall (if you bother to read these rambling things) me mentioning the fact that Sophia was supposed to have a chest x-ray. At her 6 mo checkup, the doctor could hear loud breathing sounds (you didn't need a stethoscope to hear them) and just wanted to be sure that her lungs were ok in light of her week-long stay in NICU when she was born and that we'd been dealing with this since late January. He said "no rush" for the xray and gave me a prescription for Clarinex because she'd been dealing with this runny nose and periodic cough for a while. So last week, the Clarinex seemed to start working and I started feeling yucky with my own throat ailment and I put off taking Sophie for her xray. Sunday evening she reminded me just how badly I needed to take her.

She coughed a bit through the day and it seemed like the Clarinex might not be working and I thought I would take her in on Monday night. I put her to bed, and about midnight she started coughing and gagging. I got scared and off to the hospital we went. They had told me when I called last week that they were open 24/7 and to go to the emergency entrance to be let in, but it was a bit more complicated than I imagined to explain that I was there in the middle of the night with an infant but I didn't want to go to the emergency room! Eventually they let me in - after Sophia woke up - and down to radiology (Peds radiology WAS closed, just FYI, but they didn't blink an eye to let her in the adult dept). It took 15 minutes to check her in, and about 5 to get the xrays (by the way, if you are ever told you need xrays, 1 am may be the time to get them...I was "next-in-line"!). She was so well-behaved that the ladies doing the xrays thought she was adorable! Of course, she looked like a half-naked princess on the little chair with the high back that she had to sit on (sorry, no pictures). They told me the doctor would have results in 3-5 days (so much for the frantic ride to the hospital!) and sent us on our way.

Much to my delighted surprise, Sophie went right back to sleep for the ride home...of course, I fed her a bit before we left and then she "sang" herself a little moan song first, but for her, that's EXCELLENT! She is not fond of car rides, especially in the dark.

Later Monday morning, I called the dr to let him know we went in and that Sophie seemed to be getting worse yet again. He wanted to see her, so at 6:30, we finally got in to see him. Lo and behold, the xray results were already in. It showed "slight inflammation" that he wasn't worried about, so at least that's good news. He doesn't know what to do about the runny nose and cough, though, so he referred us to an allergist. He says he's seeing more "snot-nosed kids her age" (my dr is cool - those are his exact words) without explanation, so even though he's disappointed the medicine isn't working as well as he'd like, he thinks that's the best solution. So now we wait until May 29, and hope that this clears up in the meantime. She's so bad this morning that she won't even let me touch her nose to wipe it (but she does stick her tongue on her upper lip to catch it - hahaha!).

That's all for now - time for school and the dr for Sean and I!

Reminiscing

I was sorting through many old photos from our old computer today, and so I thought I would just post a few of Sean. He's getting so big that I forget that he was ever this small. He's hard to get pictures of nowadays because he's always making weird faces or too busy to pause for a pose. He gets a bit jealous of the photos we take of Sophie, but we took at least a few thousand in his first two years (I don't really think I'm exaggerating - wanna come help me organize and decide how to put them in a scrapbook?!?). You don't see a family resemblance between the siblings, do you?

Sean has always been good at being the center of attention. I guess that 's partly because he is/was so darn cute, but also because we had a lot more attention to give back then. As he's gotten older, he's always amazed us at how easily he picks up words and thoughts. Sometimes he talks so much like a grown-up, it's scary! In fact, I know he wasn't much older than 1 1/2 when he learned "ostentatious" and "condensation" and it wasn't much later than that that he knew what those words meant!

He got to be a bit stubborn (where'd that come from? says Katy innocently) around age 2, and although he has yet to outgrow it, I think this has been one of the most pleasant years with him...he seems to be outgrowing a lot of temper tantrums. He still has his days, but on the whole, he's just fun to be with.

I was going to post more pictures here, but I am having trouble putting them where I want to in the story, so I'll save my other reminiscing for another day. Sean's a cool kid and I love him more every day! I'm looking forward (with only a little trepidation) to knowing the man he'll grow up to be. Love you, Buddy!

The best laid plans

Oh, the pressure! I thought surely I would be writing here all the time because I have been thinking of so many good topics, but, alas, life intervenes, as always. However, that's not the only reason for the title...read on.

I really have good intentions. Seriously. Once I was finished at my "day job" I was going to have all this extra time to make dinner, plan dinners, clean the house thoroughly, organize, play more with the kids...you know where this is going, right?...work on Chip's resume, sort through Sean's toys that he never plays with, get some family photos taken, plant a garden, blah, blah, blah. Of course I had no illusions that it would happen quickly, but I thought I might get to at least ONE of those things this week.

Nope. Not one. I DID manage to get 2 loads of laundry done (1/2 of the second load was filled with items from the first load that still had baby food stains after the first washing, so maybe I should only count that as 1 1/2 loads) and the dishwasher run (after 3 days of dishes piled up there really wasn't a choice so I listened to Sophia screaming for my attention the whole time I was loading). I think I even did make dinner one night. Ok, so it was a meal from one of those make-ahead places, and Chip cooked the meat on the grill (and put the veggies in the microwave), but I did think ahead far enough that we only had to defrost the meat in the microwave for 2 minutes instead of 5, and I did assemble my fajita myself (ok, so it was the second helping...). Yes, that is my life. I don't exaggerate. And it's probably worse than that, but I don't dare admit the other stuff here.

I've had a sore throat most of the week, with a fever the first couple days, and Sophia's teething and more ornery than usual (she's really a happy baby most of the time - our favorite is when she smiles through her tears). Is that an excuse? I have more if you want them...but I digress. Back to waylaid plans:

Chip planned on Wednesday night (when I was feeling horrible) to take Sean to McDonald's for supper (about a mile away) and bring me home a BK meal ( because Sean wanted the toy from McD's AND BK - Ninja Turtles and SpongeBob - who can decide between those?!? ) and a couple of Gatorades from the store (nearly next door to McDonald's) and then hurry home to needy me. Now, granted, I'm not 100% sure he really WANTED to hurry back, but here's how the trip went:

Stop at movie store on way to McE D's because Sean didn't get to go to the one with the playplace (nice placation strategy), buy 2 1/2 off DVDs, go to McE D's, think the charge for the movies was a bit more than it should be, buy Nuggets, "Sean, eat, please", look at receipt, "Sean, please take a bite", yep they definitely forgot to take 1/2 off the movies, "SEAN, we need to eat so we can go to the store and get home to Mom", give up and pack up the uneaten nuggets, go back to movie store for refund, go to grocery store, hmm...didn't we need bread? and squeeze sour candy? and, oh look, Gatorade is on sale - let's get 20 (we do love Gatorade), "Sean, why don't you pick a couple of flavors?", look at flyer for other good sales, call from mom - "did you buy me something to eat yet? - No? Forget that stop. WHY?!? Because I already ate. I was hungry" (an hour and 1/2 had gone by), arrive home 15 minutes later.

Today, Jessica offered to stay and babysit so we could have a little adult time. Of course we packed up and off we went to dinner and the hot tub place! So...which car should we take? How about mine (says Chip) since you haven't gotten to ride in the [new-to-us] Saturn much yet? Sounds good! We decide not to go to a sit-down, wait-on-you kind of restaurant so we can get to the hot tub place before the rush. We eat a Qdoba (yum). We get in the car. Chip turns the key. Nothing. Again, he turns the key. A faint click. Nothing. Hmmm. "I thought it was over this problem (I, of course, had forgotten that he mentioned getting a jump from a co-worker earlier in the week). Well, last time I gave it a few minutes and then it started right up." Ok. We go browsing at Radio Shack next door (Really good deals on SD, XD, and Memory Plus something-or-other until 4/21 if any of you are in the market!). Now it's 7:15 (tub time is 7:30). We go back to the car. Turn the key. Nothing. Not even a click this time! Being the resourceful MacGuyvers we are, though, I offer Chip my travel toothbrush (oh, I need to remember to put that on my shopping list!), and I go back into Qdoba to buy a Coke (nice corrosion cleaner-offer). Chip goes to Radio Shack and purchases a tiny socket set to tighten the hex bolt. Socket set: 1 too small, 1 too big - no middle ground. Search for receipt that's already gone. Send me back to Radio Shack to buy pliers. Nice man lets me bring out 2 to Chip to choose (nice man=knows I've been sent in to do a man's job; how many women buy tools?!). I go back in, make exchange. I come out, and car is running. Hallelujah! Call tub place. They'll let us move our reservation time to 8, but it leaves us no time to return the pliers. That will be our next trip, when we go buy a new car battery, I guess.

All of this is written in good humor, but just imagine a life chock full of these events. You have to laugh or you cry. We're beyond crying now, and back to laughter. Good thing. Because...while Wellbutrin and Cymbalta and Celexa are nice, laughter is STILL the best medicine. We love because we can laugh. And because there's always a hot tub at the end of the story! :)

laugh if you will, but I've made one blog posting and I'm already a little bit addicted! I have been wondering all night how to post pics, so even though I should be sleeping since I only had 4 hours sleep so far today, here I am trying it out with my newly downloaded pics. Let's see if it works...

It appears to be working so far! So, here are my descriptions:
1) my attempt at art...I love this picture of Sophia sleeping. This was just a couple minutes before she was baptized by her grandma on Easter.

2)Her actual baptism. She didn't cry or make a peep (was I surprised? No - her favorite pasttime is bathing!)

3)Sean getting baptized next

4)This was Sopie tonight showing off her rolling from back-to-front skills!

5) Sean at his favorite pasttime - playing Lego Star Wars (1 or 2, I never know, but he loves it and it's really clever).

So there you have it. My first BLOG photos. Now that I know I can do this, I will probably be better at the anti-procrastination thing, but it's still probably my guilty (and sleepy, tonight) conscience telling me this is a time-waster. Hopefully not, if I stop using it to babble on like I am now.

Good NIGHT, Katy - for Goodness' Sake!!

The procrastination begins?

My first post, and already I'm stressing over the pressure of adding to my blog on a regular basis. What kind of neurosis is that? I just want to be able to have a place to share with everyone things that happen in our daily lives. I know I won't be able to keep up with this regularly, but I guess it will be fun to try, and perhaps someone might even read something I write someday!
This is my 2nd day of being officially unemployed (last week didn't count since it was Spring Break and I was in New York visiting family). I feel a lot less stress about time management, but I'm still not getting anything done, really, except setting up a blog site and looking for jobs for Chip on Monster and CareerBuilder. I hope that he can finish his resume tonight so I can get the applications sent out for him. It's more than a full-time job trying to sift through job descriptions and find good fits. I just hope he finds something soon - but that's a stress I don't choose to talk about here right now. I'll definitely post more about it soon.
Sophia is growing so fast! She is more alert and making more controlled movements every day. She really likes watching computer screens and can concentrate for long periods of time on just one toy (even though she has several - we don't like her to be bored!). She weighed 16 lbs, 7 1/2 oz at her 6 mo checkup last week, and was almost 27 in long. She has been fighting a stuffiness for over 2 months so the dr gave her some allergy medicine, which seems to be helping. Because of her difficulties at birth, though, he ordered a chest x-ray to make sure that the gunky sounds he was hearing in her chest didn't indicate any problem with her lungs. I have to take her to the hospital, and they don't take appointments, so I've been procrasting about that, too. Who wants to take a baby to a waiting room without knowing how long they will have to stay? Other than that, though, she is overall very healthy and happy baby. Today she's being a bit noisy (read:whiny), but I think she just wants more attention than Jessica, Sarah, or I can give. Yep, I'm still a homeschooling tutor. School for us should be done by the end of May, but that's another stress. The girls are seriously "senoiritis-ing" on me, and frankly, so am I. I want to give them special days, but they are dragging their heels so much that we just end up plugging away day after day without any special stuff.
Iwill save Sean info for the next time, because Sophie decided it's lunch time...