our first emergency

a couple nights ago hubby had just finished mowing the lawn and zoom was right there beside him as he cleaned out the mower. curious as he is, he began touching everything, "helping". it all happened so fast, but he managed to grab the muffler, still hot from running. could it have even been a second? it doesn't really matter, because it was excruciating pain for the little guy.
conveniently, i was watering with the hose, but he would not let us do anything with his hand, not even look at it. poor guy.
his screams drew the attention of one of our med students upstairs and he came running down to see if things were okay. he was a great help, trying to get zoom's hand in water, put on aloe, even look at it, but none of us were deeming trustworthy.
zoom doesn't cry very long when he gets hurt. just the day before he fell off the patio chair on to the concrete, earning himself a raspberry on the forehead. he didn't even cry for 5 seconds.
last summer he fell off a platform at the playground, landing face down in the sand, 4 feet below. he cried for maybe 10 seconds, but it wasn't until we got home and i saw that he was limping that i realized he really did get hurt. the limp lasted a few days, but was more annoying to him than painful.
so when i glanced at the clock to see that it had been 15 minutes, i knew he was in real pain. i've been burned before - it HURTS! for a long time. and the poor guy had no idea that turning away cool water, aloe and even a moist cloth meant he would be bearing that pain alone.
it was 3 hours of nearly constant cries, mingled with arching back and writhing in pain, that he calmed down at the suggestion that we eat some dinner.
WHEW! and to think this will just be the first of many.....
thankfully, he slept solidly thru the night and the first thing he said when he woke up was, "bunnned" and showed his hand.
i think we'll survive.

ode to good friends

this weekend we said goodbye to our good friends, "a.borealis" and "starbeans". they moved to a farm in a small town about three hours away. we are so sad to see them go and have enjoyed our times together so much. kindred spirits indeed. you never know who you are going to meet at a christmas party - BECAUSE you brought the little one!
we are so happy for them, and slightly jealous that they get to live the farm life! and we will visit. promise! i can't wait to see the property and hear how the transition goes for the family.
so, see you soon friends, and (i never thought i would say this) thank God for the internet and that even small towns have access at the local library :)
you can follow their journey here.

what makes a day?

hubby has been waking up before 5am for over a month to work out. good for him. seriously, i am proud of him for being that dedicated, because even when i was working at 5.30am i could barely allow myself to get out of bed before it is officially the morning hour.
anyway, occasionally zoom feels like it is time for him to wake up too. now believe me when i say that i am so thankful that his 5.30am trend is over, but that doesn't make it any easier when every once in a while he reverts.
today was one of those mornings that started before it should have. he isn't nursing in the morning anymore, so it is go time from the first minute. that started my bad mood. not more than 10 minutes into the "morning" he was playing with a commuter mug and whacked me in the lip with the stainless rim. i almost swore (which i think if you knew me you would affirm that i must be having a bad day). it hurt so bad. i know it was an accident, but that didn't keep the swelling down. zoom was so sweet, giving me silent smootches on the shoulder, but that didn't keep it from throbbing.
we've started caring for a 1.5 year old, mr.d, and he arrived at 7.30. shortly thereafter we sat down for breakfast, raspberry oatmeal. these boys love to eat, but the red raspberry oatmeal was everywhere BUT in the mouth. why didn't we have plain oatmeal? they were using their forks as hammers, tossing food onto the floor, climbing out of their chairs before hand washing.
thursday we pick up milk and eggs from the farm's drop off site in the city, so i pack up the boys in the chariot and ride. this was the first moment of peace. the first ride with quietness in the back. usually i am requested to sing "teeny, tiny tunnel" as we ride under every overpass (i am pretty sure there are 19 on our ride). frequently there are screams as one hand somehow gets in the other boys mouth and the jaws know nothing but to clamp down. always there is running commentary. but today was silent. i think i even heard a yawn. probably the 5am wake up.

as i rode i thought about what it is that make a day a "good one". did i start off in a bad mood so i was only seeing the bad stuff in the day? was i subconsciously cursing my day? do my days usually have stuff like this happen, but when i am feeling good i just see the balance of it all? can i pray myself out of a bad mood, putting things into "greater" perspective? do we just have good days and bad days and there isn't anything we can do about it? maybe there is purpose in suffering during those bad days.

the farmer was still unloading his truck when we arrived and he dared to ask me how the morning was going. i told him he was the wrong person for me to complain to about waking up early (he confessed that he got to "sleep in" until 4am this morning)
maybe it is perspective. i rode home without getting overheated and the boys arrived with all their fingers, tho one had bite marks. and i found a handful of curls in the bottom of the trailer after they got out. they played outside the rest of the morning, getting so absolutely filthy that i had them bathe in the pool rather than track everything thru the house (see, i am thinking ahead, avoiding further opportunities to fall into the mire of self-pity). they ate a good lunch, happily, and both took good naps.
i worked on organizing my stack of recipes in an effort toward being more organized about meals. my lip isn't throbbing anymore, just fat and purple. we had a nice dinner outside with brian, who lives upstairs. zoom adores the guys upstairs, and they are pretty entertained by him. brian is even the zoom-pronounciation of the letter y, when singing the ABC song (y-and=brian)
i think i really did appreciate the second half of the day much more than the first. even tho zoom AGAIN got filthy in the backyard and had to have a second bath in one day!
did i change perspective, thus able to see the goodness, or did things really take a turn?

it's a peach!

baby #2 is the size of a peach and my belly is budging. yeah, it's my first entry about our next episode, but that's just life right now. i haven't taken much time for blogging, even tho i still do it in my head on a regular basis.
i am feeling great and 95% excited about another child, 5% terrified about how i'll manage to wrangle two.
zoom is about as excited as a nearly 2 year old can be when they have no idea that their perfect world of complete-focus-on-me is about to be drastically changed. i think he'll be one of those kids that says things which embarrass the parents. he pointed to a woman's belly at church last week and said, "BABY!". feeling a sense of panic i felt like i was pulling something out of my butt when i told her that he thinks EVERYONE has a baby in their tummy. he even lifts up his own shirt and says, "hi baby".
i think he'll be a great big brother. he likes babies, loves to help and is getting really independent.
more later, i hear the end of nap time arriving.