Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Intestinal Revenge

Warning: This may be one of my less enjoyable posts...especially if you are reading during a meal! 

A couple weeks ago, I enjoyed some pepper jack cheese. I -love- pepper jack cheese. Unfortunately, whenever I eat jalapenos, Gizmo get the most disgustingly stinky poop and farts known to all mankind. It's actually quite amazing how a little bit of pepper can affect him so strongly...though my milk.

Nonetheless, I ate my burger with pepper jack, and Gizmo enjoyed a raisin, a green olive, and some bread.

Then, just over a day later, I sent my hubby on an airplane to Texas for a week...and Gizmo started having diarrhea. Stinky, mucous-y, blood-tinged diarrhea. I was near tears thinking about spending any amount of time with a sick kid and an absent husband.

But I was unsure what was really going on in those little baby intestines. Jalapenos had never caused such a bad reaction before. Could it have been the raisin? The olive? Those were new food items for Gizmo. Maybe it was a triple whammy of pepper/raisin/olive distress. Or was it a virus? Whatever it was, I hoped it would quickly get better. And as I Googled, I got more worried about the presence of blood in my kiddo's dipe...and I got more prepared to make a visit to the pediatrician.

But the runs kept coming. And then came the diaper rash on top of it. We were not a happy mother/baby pair.

Then, after a couple days of pain-in-the-butt diaper changes, out came a hard, solid....popcorn kernel! And all the sudden, the symptoms started clearing up. After going though nearly a whole (and huge, I might add) box of diapers, and a whole tube of Desitin...things started to get better.

I can easily blame my husband for this horribly exhausting mishap....because I am never the one that makes the popcorn in our home (and I -very, very rarely- eat it). But, that lucky guy, he didn't have to change a single one of those wretched diapers.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Bad Neighbor/Awesome Mom

As spring turned into summer, the heat started rising and rising, and all the local pools opened. But, we don't have (free) access to any local pools. And I'm cheap. And lazy. So, instead, I decided to put up our very own splash pool outside.

There are just a few things to note about this situation.

1. We live in an apartment complex.
2. We live on the top floor.
3. We do have a downstairs neighbor.

I tried to do this the smart way. We bought the smallest kiddie/wading pool available (splashing all summer from home for only $6.99? Yes, please!) I thought about putting a tarp down on our deck first...but I neglected to do that when I first started filling the pool. Of course, I decided it needed to be done once Bug dumped nearly a whole bucket full of water down to our neighbor's patio below. So, I emptied the little pool and got out our tent tarp. It easily covers the whole splash area (which is pretty much the whole deck, minus some room for our camp chairs/mini grill/tiny stack of firewood/bag of charcoal).

With the tarp down and in place, I was able to fill up the pool again. And then I sat out there with a book while Bug made big splashes, and Gizmo crawled in and out of the pool. (Of course, I also had to keep getting Gizmo and returning him to the pool when he tried to touch anything he shouldn't...mostly our baby bird nest....which is another post that I'm hoping to get up soon.)

Within a week of having our splash pool up, an apartment complex notice went out reminding upstairs neighbors that what they did above would affect those below (pinpointing water as one of the things to be polite about). Er...we were feeling guilty, and a little like the notice was directed at us. But, then the hubby talked directly to our neighbor about the water. She said she noticed a little (I'm assuming the initial non-tarp dump) but it wasn't bothering her. Phew! Of course, she is so nice, she probably wouldn't tell us. But, I think the splashing has been kept very minimal now that we have the tarp down.

All in all, I'm probably a horrible neighbor. But there is no denying that I'm an awesome mom! (If only I could now keep Bug from deliberately peeing in the pool!)

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Who doesn't love chocolate ice cream?

When my mom tells me that she misses my blog....I guess it's time to sit down and type up a post. (Where the HECK has my motivation gone???) And I have a list of nearly a dozen post ideas, so I really have absolutely no excuse.

A friend of mine had a baby 10 weeks ago. She had invited me to attend the birth, but due to unfortunate circumstances, I couldn't get a babysitter to watch my kids, so I couldn't go. And 7 weeks later, I still hadn't had a chance to meet the new baby. So, we marked our calenders and got our butts over there! I tell you what, I don't understand the fertile-aged woman who can hold a tiny baby and -NOT- have a pang in her ovaries to have a[nother] baby! Gizmo is over nine months now, so I can have a baby any time and he'll definitely be in nursery by the time the baby comes. (Every LDS mom knows how nice that is, right?) Alas, I guess things will have to wait a bit longer before we have another one, though. 'Cause no matter how much those dang ovaries of mine are panging, they are the servants of my breastfeeding relationship with Gizmo....who says "no baby yet".

But that isn't the point of this post. I just can't get over how cute and tiny new babies are, and how much I really want another one.

So, we were visiting with friends. We ate dinner. We talked. We ate chocolate ice cream with brownies. We let the kids (minus the tiny baby) run around and play. We sat at the table to play a card game (Bohnanza anyone?). Then, my friend's sister (who lives in the household) came home. She walked into the kitchen...which is right by where we were playing cards and -totally- visable to us....and exclaimed, "Oh, hello!"

There was Gizmo. On the floor. With a bowl of Bug's chocolate ice cream remains over his face.

He had chocolate ice cream all over his face. All over his hands. All over the floor. And he was sad to see it go when we took it away and cleaned up the mess.

Apparently, Bug left his bowl on the stool he was sitting on, and Gizmo was just tall enough to reach it. And he knew he needed to be stealthy. We had no idea what was happening just 6 feet away!

But who can blame him? It was chocolate ice cream!!