daily Hazel #32

Make one little joke about green m & m’s and you get the ol’ stink eye.

Sheesh!

fair warning

You can’t say that I didn’t warn anyone.

I could be blogging this right now and who knows what “this” might be. It could be back to school shopping with my teenagers. It could be picking up my baby girl, Jodie, from camp. “This” might be what I saw at the gas station and car wash today. It could be the stupidity that is Best Buy’s customer service. It could even be the plaid walking shorts I chose to wear today with this t-shirt. The same plaid shorts that make my ass look so big that I should have an escort of compact pickups with flashing lights and an extra wide load sign. You just never know what I mean when I say I’m blogging this. But I did warn you.

T-shirt from Mommy Needs A Cocktail.

play it again: afterglow

originally posted March 16, 2007

Can you believe that I did not have a single picture of Bill and me taken together while we enjoyed our romantic weekend away?
I was, um, distracted.
That’s my story and I am sticking to it.
But I did manage to get a few pictures like this one.
What can I say, we just don’t think to take the time to pose together. Maybe because times like those we are, well, too busy.
Ahhhh, romance!
On the other hand, my girl, Chantal, totally gets this strange beast we call marriage. All the wine and roses and other things of romance definitely rocks but it is the day to day stuff we encounter that truly proves just how much we love the one we love and committed to for better or for worse.
Anyone can fall in love. I imagine anyone can bask in the glow of a romantic weekend too. But where the rubber meets the road, as Chantal pointed out is, can just anyone love us in spite of all our faults?
Can just anyone (besides my adoring 5 year old son) love me when I am crabby and ugly? Or, shudder, when I first wake up with no coffee? Trust me, that is UGLY!
Bill can, thank goodness.
Here we are a week after an amazing weekend ALONE basking in the afterglow and he still greets me with “Good morning, Sexy.” as I stumble down the stairs this afternoon.
::::sigh::::
It’s love you know when your man can look past your hormonal, sleep deprived snark and still sound just as sincere as he did this weekend.
Now that is afterglow, baby!
That high-pitched sound you hear is my daughters’ chorus of “eeeeeewwwww GROSS!” as they read this.
Sorry, girls. Lucky for you, Daddy loves Mommy or y’all wouldn’t be here. Someday you’ll understand, I promise.

play it again: I wanna hold your hand!

originally posted March 23, 2007

One of the greatest feelings is cuddling my kids and holding hands with them. Daniel loves to cuddle and, believe me, I savor every blessed moment of it all. He also loves to hold hands. You know you are someone special in his book when he wants to hold your hand. In his mind, that is something one does with a special friend. He tells me that I am his friend everytime we join hands.
So there we were one afternoon, cuddling together in my cozy chair and holding hands.
:::sigh::::
We both were enjoying the bliss of the moment. There was no appointment to rush off to. No immediate task that had to be completed. It was just a moment to be still and enjoy the quiet together while we held hands.
In the quiet together, his little fingers began to stroke mine. I returned the strokes on the top of his hand with my other hand. While doing this I looked down and noticed…
A VEIN!
A gorgeous, big, STRAIGHT vein.
Big deal, right?
No.
Look very closely at the picture above. Okay, ignore the fact that his hands are, as usual, dirty. Look at his hand.
Look closely.
Closer.
Do you see all those white bumps? Those are old IV scars. He has more running up his arm, on his right hand and arm as well as all over his feet and ankles. All those weeks in the NICU on IV therapy, IV medications and the multiple blood transfusions (16 to be exact) have taken their toll on his veins. Using a technical term, the boy has shit for veins. They are scarred beyond belief, tortuous and twisted. Trying to obtain bloodwork requires the most skilled of phlebotimists, nurses, or anesthesiologists and even then there is no guarantee that they can be successful because sometimes the patient and the powers that be won’t cooperate. When he had his last surgery, they were unable to obtain pre-op labs after several attempts. I called the surgeon and asked if there was anyway we could draw the labs the day of surgery while he was under anesthesia as they were planning to start his IV for that procedure after he went under. He agreed that we had tormented the boy enough so his preop labs were drawn the next day on the surgical table. Such is the life of Daniel. Thank goodness we are at a point in his life where he is regarded more as a healthy child where multiple doctor visits and regular blood draws are not the norm.
So are you getting my excitement over this big, fatty, straight vein?
Ooooh yes, I am a naughty mommy.
Daniel thinks so too as he quickly snatched his hand away from me almost sensing what his mommy was doing. Poor baby was most likely having NICU flashbacks.
I confess, I have scouted for veins now on four of my five children. I’m sorry. It’s almost second nature. Who cares that my IV skills are sub-par since I broke my right arm and lost some hand strength and mobility. I still find myself peeking at veins and stroking them to check for good blood return. It’s the nature of the beast that is the NICU nurse in me.
So there you have it. Nurse, good. Mommy bad. But I do know what vein one should go for if the boy ever again (God forbid) needs an IV. For now, I will restrain myself when my little boy wants to hold hands.

daily Hazel #31

Bedtime is the right time for a little rock and roll especially when one has rock and roll jammies like these.

daily Hazel #30

Her mama complains that it’s hard to see how much she has grown and changed in the last seven weeks. I try to tell her that in the day to day daily moments, yes, we really don’t see right away how much our children are growing and changing. It’s the same thing that I explain to the parents of my patients in the NICU. That is why I always recommend one take pictures on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly). It has worked for me before. Trust me, Holly, little miss Hazel is growing and changing right before our very eyes.

daily Hazel #29

Hopefully she is telling Grandpa all about the awesome hotel we stayed at and how much I want to go back for a little get-away.

this one time at cheer camp…

Yeah, I know. How unlikely it is that some geeky, graceless girl like me would be at cheer camp. But I got a pass by way of my own cheerleader-type daughter. So here I am, at UC Davis, Traci’s alma mater and Cathy’s neighborhood school.

Davis is a beautiful little college town type city. I enjoyed wandering through the downtown area, exploring the shops, restaurants and Friday night E Street music. Davis is known as a bicycle-friendly city and it also seems to be pedestrian friendly too.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is stroller-friendly. Strollers just get in the way of the cyclists and pedestrians trying to get from point A to point B. Oh well. We weren’t here for Hazel. We were here for Abby.

One lesson I learned at cheer camp is if you are going to step out of a routine just make sure you do it with confidence.

The rest of the cheerleader-type people will follow.

See.

daily Hazel #28

I believe that it is truly a gift to just fall asleep any time, any place, just like that (finger snap!). It’s a gift that my husband, some of my children and my grand-girl seem to possess. Unfortunately, for me, I am not gifted in that way. Of course I am jealous! But I do love it when Hazel stretches, yawns, sighs and falls asleep on my lap. If anything, it gives me the perfect excuse to just sit there until she wakes up…I could seriously sit here for hours.

how to frighten the mother of your children

The scene: It’s 10:30 on a warm July evening. Darling husband and I are relaxing on the sofa, cuddling the grandchild and watching our latest Netflix offering, The Kite Runner. Daniel is tucked into bed, sound asleep with visions of cars, planes, trains and Mario Brothers dancing in his head. Holly is at work and not expected home until sometime after 11:30. Zoë is driving home from a friend’s house where she spent the evening hanging out. Abby is away at cheer camp. Jodie is spending the night at a friend’s house. It is at that moment that the phone rings.

Bill: Hello? OH NO!!! OH NO!!!…

Laura: What?!

Bill: Oh my God!!

Laura: What?! WHAT?!

Bill: That is awful…

Laura: WHAT?!

Bill: I’m so sorry…:::laughs::: Talk to you later. Uh-huh. …Okay…Bye!

He hangs up the phone.

Laura: WHAT?!

Bill: Oh it’s just Holly…

Laura: What?!

Bill: She just saw her old car in the parking lot. She sure does miss that old car.

Laura: Oh for goodness sake!

Bill: What’s wrong? You sound upset.

Laura: Four out of five of my children are not home. It’s 10:30 at night and the phone rings…and I hear a one-sided conversation that sounds like something bad has happened. What is there for me to be upset about?

Bill: You worry too much.

Laura: It’s my job because I’m the mom.

Bill (laughing and shaking his head): Whatever.