perfume in my eyes

I spent most of my morning holding Harrison down while trying to flush his eyes with water. He snuck a bottle of perfume past me this morning and ran out of my bedroom. He just shut my door when I heard him scream. Yep. He sprayed it in his eye. I opened the door and he was standing there crying trying to hand me the perfume. I rush him into the bathroom, strip him down and put him in the tub(this seems to be a reoccuring theme for me). He would not allow me to get ANY water into his eye. Monty was at work so I was alone in this which I do not suggest. I fought with him for a good 30 minutes trying to pry his little eye open while he yelled "please don't put water in my eye mommy. just put the towel on it" over and over again. It seemed the only relief he could get was when he had his eye closed with the towel pressed against it.

I finally got him quiet enough to get the doctor on the phone and they suggested I take him to the childrens hospital emergency room which was 40 minutes away. They were concerned that because he was still crying, the alcohol in the perfume might have scratched his cornea. Chloe had a friend over and we were all in our pajamas so we began rushing around trying to get dressed. I got Monty on the phone and he was able to come home for a minute. Harrison seemed to be feeling better but would not open his eye and upon trying to even remove the towel he was holding up to his eye he would start screaming again. Monty finally got his boss on the phone and was able to come with us so we headed out.

Harrison at this point decided he felt better and had both eyes open and said he did not need to go to the doctor. We decided to go on just to be safe. This however was a bad idea. We had only been on the road 5 minutes when my car began to overheat. Oh yes. I was soo happy. I was driving at the time and Monty had me pull over because the engine started making a really loud noise. We were on a backroad trying to get to the interstate and the first driveway I came to was not much more than a clearing in the brush. We sat there for a good 30 minutes trying to decide whether we should try to drive it back home or call a tow truck. Fortunately, the man who lived there worked in an autoshop and his son called him on the phone to see what we should do. He said we would probably be okay to drive the car to his shop which was just down the road.  My dear husband thought it best to get it home and deal with it on Monday since the shop we usually go to wasn't open today. It was at this point that he decided he should drive.... and he backed my car straight into a ditch. mmmhhhmm. not only in a ditch but up over the large concrete/steele rod barrier that was there to keep cars out of that ditch. It was at this point that I began yelling and crying almost hysterically. lol . Chloe's poor little friend in the back seat will probably never come to our house again.

Fortunately it was mostly cosmetic damage although the running board got jammed up so bad that the back door gets caught on it. Can you see that I am having a great day? lol. I don't know if I want to talk to much less see my husband anymore today. But I am stuck with him. And tomorrow is his day off. Hooray....will we survive?

Harrison just woke from his nap and he says his eye feels great and he can see out of it so I am not sure what to do. He is too young to tell me if his vision is cloudy but there isnt any redness or swelling so I guess I'm gonna give it 24 hours and see how it looks then. Well I hope you all are having a better weekend than us. Talk to you soon!!

Mommy Im Sick...

My week has been filled with vomit and for once it was not my own. Monday started off pretty smooth and stayed that way until mid-afternoon when Chloe yelled down the stairs "MOM!! Harrison puked on my couch!!!" I ran up the stairs to see harrison sitting on the little pink couch in her room with his hands straight out in front of him. He and the couch AND the curtains were covered. I mean completely covered in puke. It was horrible. He was crying, chloe was laughing/shrieking and my dear husband didn't move off the couch. I yelled for him and told him that I needed help. We each took an end and carried harrison to the bathtub. I thought Harrison had gagged on the candy he snuck out of my purse but it turns out that my poor son who has a weak stomach happened to turn and look right as the dog had an accident on Chloe's floor. He threw up immediately. And so the week began. On Tuesday Harrison woke at 7 a.m. calling for his dad. Monty went in to check on him and soon started yelling for me. Harrison was once again sick and this time, he threw up right on Monty. I spent most of the day carrying him to and from the bathtub,stripping him of his clothes and cleaning him up. He was so pitiful and everytime I would get him cleaned up, he would say "mommy I'm sorry i frew up on the blanket/couch/floor/you....." he melts my heart. I managed to keep him drinking sprite all day so the cleaning up was fairly easy. My hubby got home that evening and while I was upstairs changing sheets(again) I guess he asked Harrison if he was hungry and told him he needed to try to eat a sandwich. I made it downstairs just in time to see Harrisons eyes get real big as he threw his hand over his mouth and threw up an entire pb & j sandwich. DIS-GUS-TING.
  
Wednesday started off really good as harrison seemed to feel great. Monty however came dragging in the door around 10 am and went straight to the bathroom. He was sick with it for 2 days. yikes. I slept on the couch. It is a lot harder to take care of a grown man than a baby in my opinion. I must admit that I didnt really take very good care of him. I brought him cold drinks and just tried to stay out of his way. He is a lot better at the "in sickness" than me. So the week was finally over..well so I thought until my poor chloe started feeling bad Thursday night and actually came in at 4 am friday morning to tell me that she had thrown up. She spent Friday and Saturday in bed and the bathroom but thankfully was better by Sunday.

So that was my week. Sorry these past few posts have been so gross but I'm here to share it all. The good,bad & ugly and hopefully you will stick around to see things get better.

 One last thing....if any of you are pregnant or nursing, you can log on to http://www.uddercovers.com/ right now and get a nursing cover for free minus shipping with the code "onefree". Im not sure how long this promotion is going on but ordered one a few days ago and am super excited to get it. Hope you all are staying well and keeping your food down!

Puking my life away

Whew! I am so glad that is over. Hopefully some of you noticed that I have been gone. Maybe even hoping I would come back soon to share more crazy stories with you...I did read your comments so I know some of you are keeping up and I really appreciate all of the well wishes. I don't even know where to begin with the insanity I just went through. My last post was short and simply informed you of the morning sickness that had accompanied my pregnancy so far. It was bad but I thought it would pass in a few weeks and we could move on like normal.I was wrong. Very, very wrong. 11/2009-2/2010 will forever be known as the worst months of my life! I will try not to go into too much detail but the 3 weeks following my last post I lost 16lbs and was in the hospital half a dozen times. I was so ill that I could barely move by myself.I would actually get motion sickness when I would sit up. I couldn't even keep water down and kept being hospitalized for dehydration. I was so sick that I started pulling muscles in my stomach from dry heaving so hard. yuk. Aren't you so glad you joined me today? Don't go away! please! I will keep it short and to the point while hopefully sharing a laugh or two.

So, I was finally diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum or HG for short, which is basically a severe form of morning sickness with unrelenting, excessive nausea and/or vomiting. I honestly felt like I was going to die. The pain was not simply physical but mental as well. I remember lying in bed wondering how I would make it though the day. How I could make it another week. I couldn't take care of my children or myself. It really started getting my down and began affecting my moods. I lost interest in doing anything but sleeping because that was the only time I got relief from the pain. I spent most of my days tossing and turning in bed trying to get my mind off of my cramping stomach & constant nausea while hoping Harrison's brain wasn't turning to mush from watching hour after hour of cartoons. He seems to have survived and somehow through it all learned how to spell his name and count to 20. Unfortunately, I don't think I was responsible for teaching him either one. From me, he learned the importance of properly holding your hair back when throwing up and that when mommy is lying in the bathroom floor she probably can't get you more juice for a while.

My doctor finally decided that I wan't going to be able to keep the pill form of the medicine I needed down and set me up with a home health nurse who came to the house and hooked up a small machine that pumped the meds straight into my stomach. I must say that after only a few days, I began to feel a difference. I was able to sip on liquids and not immediately throw them up and after only a week and a half, I was able to move around without getting motion sickness. I finally started getting some of my energy back after about 2 weeks and was able to go visit with some family for a few hours on Christmas day. I was told that I may have to keep the pump in throughout the entire pregnancy but there was a possibility that I would start feeling better once I hit my second trimester. 13 weeks came and went with no change but I was at least able to move around and the vomiting was somewhat under control so I wasn't complaining. I am now 17 weeks and I was finally stable enough to take the pump out this past Friday. Hooray! I have only felt nauseous a few times but I think I can handle it. The baby is still doing ok and I have finally started to gain a little bit of weight.I actually started feeling it kick last week. I go back in a few weeks to do the ultrasound and we will finally find out the sex. I am so excited.

 Sorry if this post was a little bit long and maybe boring but this has had such a huge impact on my life that I really wanted to share it with you all. Maybe some of you have experienced the same thing or are maybe going through it right now. If so, let me know. I would love to talk to you and offer some encouragement if needed. Hope you all are staying healthy! I have lots of exciting things to catch you all up on and look forward to seeing what you all have been up to as well!

PREGNANT

So I am pregnant! Hooray! And I can't seem to do anything but throw up. All day. Every day. Its all I can do to make sure my 2 year old is fed and changed. I'm guessing God allows us to forget all the misery that comes with the joys of pregnancy so we will actually do it again. I really,truly don't remember it being this bad. I am 6 weeks along and am praying that the good times come here pretty soon. So for the time being, I will probably be MIA. Anybody have any good home remedies for the nausea/vomiting? I would greatly appreciate it! In case I'm not back before, Happy Thanksgiving!

Party Time-Batman cake

    My nephew turned five this week and I had the pleasure of making the cake for his Batman themed bash. The party was held at Pump in Up which is this really cool inflatable party place in Chattanooga. Harrison and Chloe alike had a blast and were looking like they might keel over from exhaustion after a mere 30 minutes of running around.

Janine and I met two weeks ago to discuss ideas for the cake and she found a few pictures online that she and Andrew(the birthday boy) really liked. She was expecting up to 30 people for the party so I decided to do a 10 and 6 inch stacked cake. Andrew is really in to batman right now and I was super excited to do something a little bit different. Especially since Janine wasn't super picky about what she wanted. The inspiration for his cake was found here on flickr but I changed it up a bit and added a few elements of my own.

these little guys remind me of the old batman cartoons with the "BLAM" and "POW" popping up everywhere

I baked a dozen cupcakes with some leftover batter and had some really cute cupcake wraps that matched the theme perfectly. Makes me think of gotham city with them all around the cake.

Andrew's expression when he saw the cake was priceless. That is my favorite part of the whole process. I love making people happy and who doesn't love cake?

I love this one..he is looking so lovingly at that cake!

sneaky pants over here snagged a cupcake and had most of the icing gone by the time anyone noticed. His face was so yellow that it looked like he had jaundice.

After we all scarfed down our cake and ice cream it was time for presents. I love the expressions on all of their little faces. Andrew looks very pleased with his booty but what cracks me up is the reaction of the two other cuties. Harrison seemed equally amazed at this gift. It is so fun to catch things like that on camera.

Overall it was a great party and Andrew came up to me before he left and said "thank you aunt kristy for making my cake." He is such a sweetheart.

and on a final note....

What I Love About Sundays

                                                                My beautiful babies...

Pumkins & Nemo

We spent the weekend before last running the roads. Monty was out of town and we needed to get our pumpkins so we went to the local pumpkin patch with our neighbors and their kids. The 20 minute car ride was actually quite relaxing which is not a word I ever use to describe time spent in the car. Living in the South, I get kind of used to the awesome show when the leaves turn but that cute windy road we took was absolutely amazing. We had to wait in line for a few minutes to buy tickets so I of course thought "picture time" and forced the boys to pose for me.

Our neighbor's three year old Logan is the cutie on the right and he was not feeling the photo opp. We finally got to the stand to buy tickets and realized that we only had about an hour before we needed to leave for Nemo on Ice and decided we should come back the next day so the kids could take their time and have a little fun. I was able to grab a few more pictures before we left.

My two little cuties

Before I told them we were leaving without a pumpkin..

sidetracked by leaves, melt down averted

We then headed to Chattanooga and Harrison was a complete chatterbox. He was soo excited to see Nemo but I don't think he has even seen the movie. The drive seemed to take forever this time because we were so ready for the show. We were able to get really good seats and I had set aside a little bit of money so I could get the kids an overpriced but really cute Nemo souvenir. I don't think I have ever seen my child sit as still as he did during that show and it was for such a long time! I wish I could bring some of those skaters home with me. I could get so much done.

Plus how cute is this guy?

All sugared up and ready for the second act to start

happy kiddos

cool glow in the dark fish

How cute is this little octopus? Why can't we find halloween costumes like that?

Funny looking Nemo

Happy Dory, happy boy