Still No Answers

I just wanted to let everyone know how my appointment went with the specialist this week. It was the same doctor who performed my EGD. The biopsy of my stomach came back negative for any bad bacteria or cancer. After talking to him a bit, he admitted that he really doesn't know what this pain could be because the area that's hurting just doesn't have much there. Everything that is there, we've tested and all looks good. So he had 3 suggestions: 1) Get a second opinion since he readily admits no dr knows everything. 2) Do exploratory surgery to just see if they can find anything but only as a last resort would he even suggest that. 3) The pain may be some kind of spasm in my intestines or muscles and he could give me a pill to try and see if that made the pain go away. Problem with that? You can't nurse and take that pill!! He asked when I was going to stop nursing and I told him 9 more months, when she's a year old. I don't want to stop when I don't even have anything close to a guarantee that the pill will solve the problem. I want to give Jocelyn the same start I gave Matty in life. I respect other mother's choice to formula feed their babies. But for me, I want to nurse til a year old. So for now I'm just going to continue nursing and try to live with the pain. I'll fill the prescription he gave me and try it when I'm done nursing. If the pain isn't bearable for that long of time (though I've already had it over a year), then I'll go see the internal medicine dr who he would refer me to for a second opinion.

All I can say is being in pain sucks.

(As does living in an apartment with a downstairs neighbor who apparently must be near deaf because why would a normal human have their music that loud? I don't know how someone justifies in their mind playing music that loudly when you live in an apartment, particularly one where kids are trying to sleep above you!! ARG!)

Thankful Thursday

I feel like a total slacker because I keep missing Thursday! I even have a reliable connection again (YAY!) so that's not my excuse now. I've been so busy reading The Host and Breaking Dawn this week, that I've hardly had time for anything else! I finally finished with them late last night only to wake up and see Tiburon's post about Midnight Sun now being available online. One of these days I will sleep and pay attention to my kids again, I promise! ;)

1. Internet!!! Obviously, this is one for me this week. I've only had a crappy t-mobile connection in the evenings lately, but now we found a neighbor to share with. Hurray!

2. Books. I love reading good books that allow you escape from life for a bit. (Unfortunately, I can't stand an unfinished book so everything else in life ends up neglected. Oops! Maybe that's why I don't read as often as I would like, I just know what it will do to me!)

3. Bumbo seat. I never had one with Matty, but he didn't care as much about sitting up as Jossy does. You wouldn't know under that buddha-of-a-tummy that she has some serious ab power! She's always trying to sit up from a laying position. She enjoys being a part of the world now and I enjoy not having to hold her up all day long! A worthy investment.
4. Water painting. You remember those paint books as a kid that didn't need any paint because you just had to add water from your paint brush to spread the colors around the lines? I got one for Matty this week. The kid loves to paint and now he can do it with less supervision (always a plus!)

5. Alone time. All you moms out there know that this is such a rare gift! After a dr's appointment this week, I wasn't in the best mood so Dan took the kids to Walmart to get the oil changed in the car and gave me a whole 90 minutes to myself! I had to practically tie myself down to stop myself from using my precious time to clean. Thank goodness I had Breaking Dawn to distract me. :)

The Last Tuesday

Today was the last $2 Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point, and I must say I'm glad! It's been a lot of fun but a lot of work taking the kids each week to such crowded places. We were joined by friends this time at the Children's Discovery Gardens. We'd never been there before. It was much more fun than I thought it would be! There were so many fun things for the kids to explore. The kids got soaked in the little fountain/wading pond at the beginning. We also wandered over to the waterfall of the main gardens. So gorgeous!! We could've spent all day there if it weren't for naptime and the need to eat. Matty had a blast, and I'm so glad we had friends with us this time. We're seriously thinking about getting a family pass to Thanksgiving Point because Matty had so much fun wherever we went. (I bet that was the point of them having $2 Tuesdays.)
Matty took that last picture of the waterfall right after dropping the camera onto the brick sidewalk. Good to know the camera is sturdy! (Sorry, Shandra, I never got any pics with your kids in them!)

Tough Lessons

As we were checking out at Walmart today, Matty headed over to the little stash of Hot Wheels cars they keep at the checkout. I knew he would want one as always, so I decided right then that we wouldn't be getting one today. I often let him have one when he's been really good, which he had been today, but I really don't want him to think he can get one every time we go to the store. Besides, we already have a ton at home. So when he brought two over to me and said, "I don't know which one I want," I was ready and replied that we weren't getting any today but maybe another day. He persisted the entire time I was checking out. So I finally told him we could go home and count his money and if he had enough (which he does), we could come back and he could pay for it himself. (Two lessons at once!) He was fine paying for it with his pennies, but wanted it NOW. I had to pry the thing out of his hands as he threw a fit, Jocelyn crying in her carseat all the while.

I'm sure I looked like the worst (or poorest) mom to not just buy him the 97 cent toy he wanted. But it was all about the lesson I wanted him to learn, that we can't have a toy car each time we go. I almost gave in because of the enormous tantrum and big tears, but I stuck to my guns. Was it worth it? I don't know yet.

So do you think I should've just given him the car, or is the lesson more important? Or does that lesson even really matter at all?

Dress Up

I love having a little girl to dress up for church! And my old roommate Rachel is right when she said taking pictures of babies is so addicting! (Too bad I'm not as good at it as some of you, but I still love it!)

Thankful Thursday Late

I couldn't post this yesterday because of no connection, but better late than never thankful!

1. 8 hours of sleep for Jocelyn. 3 of the last 4 nights she has slept 8 hours! Day time naps are not going well at ALL, but at least she's sleeping at night. Now if only those Olympics would get over, we could actually get some sleep! (Of course, you know as soon as that happens she'll stop sleeping.)

2. Geotrax. Matty loves these and it provides him with hours of entertainment. I love that he can play with them on his own and doesn't need us to put track pieces together (though he still asks for it occasionally.)

3. Friends at playgroup. There are weeks that the only times I get to talk to other moms is at the ward playgroup. I really enjoy that time with them.

4. Visiting Teaching. We did our visiting teaching this week. It's always hard to take that initial step and make the appointment, but once we're there I just love visiting with our sisters!

5. My VT comp and friend. She was so kind and let us have FHE at her house this week so that we could try out her Wii as the activity. We all had a great time. (Thanks again Val!)

6. The HOPE of getting our own home someday soon. If I didn't have at least this hope, I don't think there are weeks I could take living in an apartment anymore. Having managers is so frustrating.

7. Pictures printed off. I finally got around this last week to printing off the pictures of Jocelyn's birth and putting them into albums. It's so fun to see how much she has changed since she was born.

Do you do Thankful Thursday yet? Give it a try!

Sweetness

Just in case you can't tell, one of my favorite things is to share pictures of my kids.

Thanks for giving me someone to share them with.

Through the Eyes of a Three-Year-Old

Ever wonder what the world looks like through the eyes of a preschooler? Just give him a camera! Honestly, we were just trying to keep Matty out of our hair for a few minutes, but it had some pretty funny results. He took about 200 pictures including some rather unflattering ones of Dan and I that have been promptly deleted. Anyway, here are just a few highlights of his "work."


From left to right, top to bottom:
Our table, the hall, the shower curtain, diapers, dinner, his truck, his legs, measuring cup drawer, dinner again, the couch, a chair back, self portrait, the kitchen cabinets, a swim diaper cover, picture frame hanging in the hall, self portrait again, the entertainment unit, Dan's shoes, Matty's room, his firetruck, our SLR camera, the laptop, the carseat, our fan, and his own shirt he was wearing.

(One you won't see here is the one he took of his daddy in the bathroom.)

Farm Frenzy

Today we went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point to take advantage of $2 Tuesday once again. I thought with school having started that it would be less crowded. Boy was I wrong!! The place was jam packed with preschoolers, mommies, and strollers. We only stayed about an hour because Jocelyn wouldn't stop crying the last 30 minutes (but promptly fell asleep once we got to the car of course.) I was nervous to go somewhere like this by myself with the kids because of how fussy Jocelyn can get and Matty's occassional need to wander, but it went okay. No one got lost, sunburned, or bitten. :)

(Sorry about the repeat pictures. This is my first time using the program. It'll look better next time. Gotta love that cow tongue though!)

Our Unwelcomed Guests

So we've had these little dark bugs in our house for months. We didn't know where they were coming from. We'd just find one or two once in a while in a box of crackers or on our kitchen table. Well Dan and I decided with Matty at Grandma's that we'd take a few minutes (it couldn't take more, right?) and go through our food and get rid of any we found. We didn't plan on it being this difficult:
All because we found this:
Can you see all those black spots? That's just a small portion of the weevils we found. YUCK!! They had nested under our crisco can among other places. My family kept telling me weevils were white, but reading online I learned that only the young ones are. Adults are black, brown, or red. We had to throw away SOOO much food as well as my canisters for flour and sugar because they were living inside the "airtight" lid.

Some 409, insecticide, and SEVEN hours later, this is what we got:
Now everything that could possibly be food for them is in ziplock bags.
Since we did this about 5 days ago, we're still finding several a day but they don't look as healthy. I hope we can get rid of them for good soon! I hate having bugs in my food.

Family Swim

We all went swimming last night just to do something fun together. It was Jocelyn's first time swimming!! For a baby who cried her head off for her first few baths, she did wonderfully! She didn't cry at all in the pool (until some strangers tried to talk to her) and I even got a few smiles out of her. Once we took her out of the pool, she cried VERY loudly because the wind made her really cold. Dan took her home, and it took about 10 minutes for her to calm down and go to sleep. It was so nice to do something as a family. (As a sidenote, I was excited that I could fit into my swimsuit and boardshorts from last summer. Wahoo!!)

Thankful Thursday

A few weeks ago I had a CT scan on Thursday. Today I had an EGD (scope down the throat) without any sedation I might add because I'm breastfeeding. (Dry heaving and gagging on a scope for 5 minutes is not fun!) Sure puts you in a great mood for Thankful Thursday!!

1. These are the thing I'm most grateful for this week.

Jocelyn is starting to laugh. It's like a little cough sound, but it's a laugh.

Matty told me I was Super Mom when I got him a drink of water one day.

How could I not be in love???

Dinosaur Museum

The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point has $2 Tuesdays this month. Normally it's ridiculously expensive, so I took Matty yesterday with my sisters and his cousin Emi. Unfortunately, because it was the last Tuesday this month before school starts the place was PACKED!!! We should have waited until next Tuesday but oh well. The kids had a good time. Would've been better without all the crowds. (It was like a stroller convention there!)

Matty doesn't like standing with his back to the dinosaurs

This was Jocelyn's first museum visit! Look at her excitement!

My Adorable Kids

While taking pictures of Jossy in her dress (notice the spelling of her nickname we decided on), I managed to get Matty in there with her for a few. We had issues with the lighting, but I still think they're cute. I love my kids.

Blessing Dress Photos

As promised, here are some pictures from our little photo shoot. Being forced to chose just a few pictures to share is like torture! This is the best I can do. I wish I could share them all!

Baby Blessing

The blessing was interesting. Jocelyn was fussy when they took her up there and Dan started speaking, but it soon turned into an all out wail. It was so hard to hear what was even being said. The blessing was really short. I found out afterwards that Jocelyn somehow almost fell out of their hands and my brother-in-law Sean was the one who managed to catch her before she fell. It scared her and that's why she started crying so hard. After her escape attempt, someone had two hands on her at all times for the rest of the blessing. Crazy, huh? It took me over 15 minutes of her screaming it out in a classroom before I could get her to calm down enough to sleep. The counselor conducting Sacrament Meeting joked that she had just had her first solo in church.

Of course we got some cute pictures of the day. There are too many cute ones to share them all, so here are just a few. (The one above is from a photo session I did with her after church. There were so many cute ones, I'll have to give that it's own post later. I'd do it now, but Dan needs to take this computer to work and my internet connection goes with it.)

Our family that was able to come.Matty was done and ready to go home.

Murphy's Law

For those of you unfamiliar with Murphy's Law, it basically states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. A few examples demonstrate this law well:

1. The handyman WILL come at the most inconvenient time (while you're nursing a baby and have the 3-year-old in the bath tub at the same time.)

2. The toddler WILL begin to sleep soundly for the first time in weeks the first night that your newborn decides she needs to be awake all night and not sleep the 6 hours in a row you've gotten used to.

3. It doesn't really matter what time you schedule a doctor appointment because no matter what it WILL be during the baby's nap or feeding time.

4. When you try switching your toddler over to underwear, he WILL have accidents at the most inconvenient times and cause you to temporarily give that up.

5. The day your kids decide to take 3 hour naps at the same time, you WILL NOT be able to fall asleep yourself.

6. When you're feeling really down, that WILL be the moment you get spit up all over you.

Cut Off

I feel like I've been cut off from the world for the past week! Our Internet connection has been near impossible to get working so I'm typing this quickly before I lose it again! We can only get a few sites to work and, of course, blogger isn't one of them. I've been able to read my friends' blogs but haven't been able to make any comments which I've really wanted to!! So I'm sorry about that.

We had Jocelyn's 2 month appointment yesterday. She was not a happy camper getting 5 shots and one oral vaccine. Poor baby cried so hard she refused to even nurse afterwards. (She definitely has more of a temper than Matty.) She weighs 11 lbs 5 oz now and is about 22.5 in. long. She actually went 7.5 hours sleeping the other night but hasn't done it since. They sure like to tease, don't they?

I want to let anyone who's interested know that we are blessing Jocelyn this Sunday in our ward. Church starts at 9:00 AM. If you live in the area and feel like coming, drop me an e-mail or comment (with your e-mail address, I promise I won't post it) so I can give you directions to our church if you don't know where it is.


Better go post this before I lose it! I feel awful that I missed Thankful Thursday yesterday because of not having a connection. I'll have to make up for it later.

2 Months Old and Growing

Jocelyn has grown and changed so much in the last month. She has such cute fat rolls on her thighs now. It's so hard to put her back to sleep in the middle of the night when she's smiling at us. We just want to play with her! Matty loves to try to make her smile and always makes sure we're taking good care of her. He told a friend of ours tonight that she can't borrow his sister because he needs her here with us. She's a wonderful addition to our home.