Laughter truly is the best medicine

There are moments in life that we all just want to scream. Sometimes we want to scream at someone or something - Most often because of something that person has done, or because the something didn't cooperate with us. And, then there are the times that we want to scream at ourselves. Though I don't find myself wanting to scream much of the time, I have felt myself getting a little "bluesy" a time or two over the past week. At least I'm woman enough to admit it, and though I certainly don't believe it to be post partum depression, I still search for ways to uplift my mood. The best medicine of all, as most of us know, is laughter. This week for several reasons, I have found myself laughing so hard sometimes that tears were running down my face. I'm not releasing those "happy endorphins" through exercise, but I feel my spirits rise each time I laugh. Of course, I have to share some of the laughter inducing incidents and stories that I was blessed with this week.


It all began with Katie. Though beautiful she is, there is a reason we didn't name her Grace. One evening we asked Katie to keep an eye on Cooper - This request is usually followed by "Just stand there, or sit there. But, don't go to Cooper - Let HIM come to you." We sound like a broken record whenever we say that, but we need to remind her each time. So, she did just that this particular evening. She stood still while watching him play around her. Now, I still don't know why it happened, but as Corey and I looked over at her she had confused look on her face. She turned to look at Cooper, forgot to move her feet, and she fell.....She had tripped over her own feet while standing still. It doesn't sound as funny as I type it, but it really was. The poor kid fell all the way to the ground. Saturday was her first softball game of the season and because it was so cold, I went to the game alone while Corey stayed home with the small children. Her first time up to bat she looked ready...She was positioned well, had a mouthful of chewing gum and had a determined look on her face. Pitch one: She swings, she misses. That's OK. Pitch two: It's a fast ball. She swings, she hits it, and the child forgets to run. She watches as the ball rolls past the first baseman and her teammates just kind of look at her like she's crazy. She looks up at me, and again, she had that confused look on her face. She shrugged her shoulders and I couldn't help but laugh. She's such a dopey little child at times. She made up for that little incident, however, by hitting a nice grounder with all bases loaded and getting an RBI.

Last Friday, Corey and some friends traveled to Portland in an RV for an event that the guys were participating in. There were 6 of them, and the RV was just a comfortable option for them. After their arrival at the venue, Rob, the owner of the RV, opened up the tip out to make more room for the 6 guys inside. That was about 5:30pm. They went about their business, put on their show, and headed out of the parking lot around 9pm. Some of the guys had been drinking that evening, including Rob, so another guy took over the driving. As they headed out of the parking lot people were staring at them with looks that made them wonder if they were just driving too fast in the parking lot. They continued to get looks as they drove down the road. A few blocks into their trip Rob screams out "OH MY GOD, PULL OVER!!!" Amidst all their fun, excitement, and, ahem, drinks, every single one of the men on board neglected to notice that the tip out was still out - I have never seen an RV in motion while the tip out was out, but I could just imagine how ridiculous they all looked. I laughed until I cried while Corey told me this. The driver mentioned something later about how the RV was "tilting" to the right, and wondered why he couldn't see out of his right rear view mirror. LOL!

And, finally, there's little Cooper. He's a bounding, emotional, intelligent little boy that is such a joy to have around. Every time I look at him he's doing something different. He watches as Corey and I care for the twins, and he has 2 baby dolls that he mimics our actions with. But, honestly, it's when he speaks that just cracks me up. A few months ago something happened that upset me and I yelled out "Dammit!" Unfortunately, I said this in front of Cooper. Since then, he says that word (compliments of negative reinforcement from Daddy) in a correct manner. For instance, he knocked over a plate of food onto the floor a few days ago. His response? "Dammit!" And, then, there's the time he fell off a chair and hurt his leg. His response then? "Bonk, Dammit!" "Bonk" is his word for hurt. As awful as it is, I find that often I remove myself from his view after he's said it so that he doesn't catch me laughing hysterically at him. I am, however, working diligently on reprogramming "Dammit" to be "Uh, oh!" We're getting there. This past weekend he showed us a little more of his speaking ability. While Corey was working on a project on the computer, Coop went up to him and asked "What doin' Corey?" I heard Corey break out in to laughter and remind Cooper that he's daddy. So Cooper responds with "Well, what doin' daddy?" Hearing him speak so well, so clearly, makes me love this part of his age. He is on the verge of potty training - He tells us when he has to poo, and he lets us know if he's peed or pooed so that we can change his diaper. We picked up a little potty chair for him last weekend and his first package of pull ups. I'm not as ready for it as he is, so I haven't put a pull up on him yet. Maybe I will next week. In 2 weeks he turns 2 and we're shooting for a Yo Gabba Gabba party, as that is his favorite show. He loves to sing, dance and move all around, which is the basis for the show. It probably won 't be a big party, but it will be fun. He enjoys things now and I love to watch him to see what he'll do or say next.

Each day I try to capture a moment to remember. A word from Cooper, a look from one of the twins, a crazy thing Katie does or even a silly story from Corey is what I look forward to each day. You always hear people tell you to live life to the fullest, and though I don't live life out on the edge or traveling in another country, I have my family, my friends and my oh so crazy life to keep me filled with more than I could ask for. Each day is an adventure for me now and each adventure is new. It's almost worth writing a comic strip about......Hmmm. I wonder.......

No More Dirt Twirls

Happy one month birthday babies! Yesterday our little munchkins turned 1 month old. It doesn't seem possible, does it? This past month has been so crazy for our family, and I can't express how wonderful it is that we are all finally getting back to normal, everyone is healthy and we finally have had the time to really adjust to the changes that 2 new additions to our family has brought.

Katie is now full throttle in to her softball season. Her practices have come twice each week for the past month and the big kickoff is this Saturday. In Hood River, little league is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest sports season to be involved in. Kate has been involved in it for three years, and this is her first year in the Majors. It's amazing the difference from when she first began to play until now, where all the girls are 5th or 6th graders, and they are all serious about wanting to play. No more daydreaming in the outfield, picking flowers around 2nd base, or twirling about in the dirt in the infield. This Saturday will begin with the Little League kickoff parade at 8:30am. We will arrive at Kate's school shortly after 8am, candy in tow, readying Kate and her team for their participation in the parade. All of the little league teams march through town, led by police cars and firetrucks, and throw candy to the excited little onlookers. Though many of the watchers will be families of the little leaguers, and young children with dreams of future stardom in the ball fields, I am most excited to see the asian man who runs the local grocery store. He gets so excited to see the parade, and jumps around, laughing, cheering, and throwing his own candy back at the little marchers. They didn't know at first whether they were supposed to grab the candy or what. But, they eventually figured it out. After the parade the opening ceremonies takes place at the majors field. As tradition lives on, the ceremony begins with the national anthem, most often sung by our local country music voice Dave Tallman. Then, each team is introduced and some awards in the majors teams are issued - Usually to the 6th graders who will no longer be playing in little league after this year. After the ceremony, the games begin spanning locations from Parkdale to across the River in Washington. Let the fun begin!

Cooper is finally a healthy little bug. So healthy, in fact, that his voice has returned, and in full force. This kid has a vocal noise level equal to his hefty frame, but above and beyond what anyone in this house is used to. He sings loud - Good, but loud. He screams loud. He counts loud. He even talks loud. A screech here and there has brought on a pretty good Migraine, which I haven't had in a very long time. But, no matter how bad it gets, I can never complain that I can't hear, or understand, what he says. He is loving our good weather, and loves to be outside playing on his little tykes slide and tunnels in the yard. He has some learning to do about how to treat cats, as he can get a little rough with them. He seems to think that their tails are cranks and that they're really meant to be wheel barrows - I secretly laugh when he attempts to pick them up by their hind legs and drive them like a wheel barrow. I know, it's not funny, but the cats just drop and lay there looking at him, so it can't be that bad. And then, after he's let them go, they run back up to him and snuggle around his legs. I bet they secretly like it too......

Mackenzie and Rayla are growing so fast and are becoming prettier each day. I didn't think that they could be cuter, but it's amazing what some extra poundage does for the appearance. I wish that was the case with me, but poundage on me looks more like tonnage in pictures. On Friday, Mack weighed 7lbs 13ounces and our tiny Rayla weighed in at 6lbs 15 ounces. I can't believe how big they've gotten. FINALLY, I have been able to dress them in a couple of things that fit them. In other words, they're not swimming in them. For the longest while we had just a couple of preemie outfits that would fit, and everything else just looked like a tent on them. I played dress up with them yesterday and put them in matching dresses...They looked so beautiful! They don't have to go back to the doctor until May 22 and we only have to report their weights to the clinic. We have a cherry scale that weighs pounds, ounces and kilograms and we made sure that the measurement it gave us was the same as the measurement at the doctors office. It was, so we can do this on our own without having to go in once each week to have them weighed. They have been sleeping double in a co-sleeper that we had for Cooper, but last week they outgrew it together. So, now they're sleeping together in one of the bassinets. It's pretty big, so it will be a little while before they outgrow that, thank goodness. Oh, they are so much fun!

Corey is back to work full time, and has been for a couple of weeks. He's been so wonderful working there, working here and doing all he can to make things as easy for me as possible. Last weekend he hit the yard with the lawnmover giving it the first haircut of the year. It now looks beautiful. Katie and I planted flowers in the front flower box last night, and that made it look even better. The harvest season is due to arrive in a couple of months, so the longer hours at work will be starting soon as well. The fruit trees are in full bloom and the valley is just breathtaking. We have had some warm days over the past week, but cooler days and nights are said to be on the way - This isn't good for farmers, as too cold could mean that they lose their crops. It's the same thing every year, though, so everyone's prepared. Corey's been such a trooper with me being on bedrest before we had the girls and then during the girls arrival and following weeks and in June he gets to go to Reno with the boys for a nice, fun, relaxing weekend - He hasn't been in a while, and it's a good time to get away before it gets too busy with harvest. He's looking forward to that nice little getaway with the boys. Once that harvest begins, he won't have any free time until October or November.

I'm doing good. I lost nearly all of the weight I gained while pregnant, but put a couple pounds on when I started a new medication a couple of weeks ago. I'll get that under control, and hopefully begin to lose the weight once again until I've reached a nice goal I've set for myself. It's a far shot, but I've got to try. I know there's a much smaller, happier person inside this chubby body and I'm going to find her. Besides, I need to have the stamina to run after 3 babies! I'm looking for something to do for myself, but haven't found, or decided on, the right thing just yet. I thought yoga, but that's just not me. Pilates? I don't know about that, but I do have several friends who absolutely love it. Maybe an aerobics class once I'm all healed - I used to love that. Either way, I have got to find a hobby. Now that I have 4 children to care for full time, it's much more difficult to go anywhere or do anything for myself and I'll go crazy if I'm not able to get out and do something every once in a while. I find myself going a day or two at a time without a shower - Yeah, I know it's not anything to be proud of, but it's not as easy to get one in as I thought it would be. Feed, pump, play with Cooper, feed again, diaper change, pump if I can, read to Cooper, do some dishes, pick up the toys, feeding time again, feed Cooper too, Yay...Nap time. Wake up, feed babies, go pee before my bladder explodes, get Cooper situated with some toys, Hmmm, 3 o'clock now, maybe I should get dressed.......HA! Believe it or not, the twins are much easier at night than Cooper was alone. He cried hours at a time at night for months, leaving us very sleepless. I have never been one to to into post partum depression, thank goodness, but I think I had a touch of it in the hospital right after the girls were born before we came home. Luckily, it stayed there. If I wasn't as strong as I am, I'd probably be worried about developing that depression here at home during this time of learning and chaos. I think I'm an OK person, a good mom and a good wife. I can be better, and these next few months I will be working on bettering every aspect of my life. I may need some help and support, and a good kick in the butt along the way, but I'm determined to reintroduce the me I've lost within to my friends, my family and most of all, me.

Bye Bye Ucky Bug

I wish I was a super human queen with as many clones as I have fingers. But, I'll settle for tired mother of 4 for now, as I know that in time life will return to normalcy in some sense of the word. Just when I think that life has begun to settle, it throws us a curveball that is completely unexpected - I swing, and I miss. If just once I could have things happen as they should I think that my blood pressure might actually have a normal reading, my mind would be clear and I'd have enough energy to do something above and beyond the things I have to do.



We went a whole week with our newborns home, and the only thing holding us back was poor Coopers horrible, horrible illness. He has never been that sick, and it got so bad that Corey took him to the doctor. He was diagnosed with some sort of respiratory infection and an ear infection. Poor baby!! The doc told us to try to keep Coop away from the girls, and we did as best as we could.......Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. On Friday we noticed that the girls had developed runny noses, and they got progressively more sick over the weekend. On Monday, I called to make an appointment for the girls on Tuesday because the coughing was so awful, the snot had turned green and they both seemed miserable. Just minutes after I made the appointment, Mackenzie began a coughing fit and she couldn't clear her throat. She started gasping for air and turned blue. Luckily, Corey was home - He grabbed her, pat her back as hard as he could, and she came out of the fit. I called the doc right back and we were instructed to come in immediately. We got to the doc and the girls continued to cough and be super snotty. But, there was no episode like there was at home. After an hour of checking each girl over, checking oxygen saturation and just watching them in the office, the doctor said that we should take them home and watch them closely, noting that if there were any marked changes that worried us, we could bring them to the ER. As we headed home, about a half mile from the office, I looked over at Mackenzie, and she was gasping for air, and her little face had turned purple once again. I screamed at Corey to pull the car over, and he jumped out of the car and around to my side faster than I've ever seen him move. He grabbed Kenzie from me and once again pat her back. That was enough - We drove back to the doctor, and though the office was closed and the front door locked, I noticed that the back door to the clinic was open. Corey bolted in and found the doctor. He instructed us to immediately take the girls to the ER.



Once in the ER, the attending physician came out to talk to us. He told us that instead of being seen in the ER, they were going to admit the girls at least overnight for observation, and hook them up to oxygen. Since Hood River is not set up for Neonatal care, the doctors and nurses in the ICU had to improvise a little. They put us up in a double room, removed one of the beds and put in a large crib for the babies. A mist tent was set up and oxygen was sent into it. The girls had blood tests run and an RSV swab to help narrow down what was causing them so much distress. Corey and I were completely unprepared for this ER visit, so at about 8pm Corey made a quick run home to get Cooper and Katie settle with caretakers, and grabbed a few things for all of us as well. I was on my feet for close to 5 straight hours, which is not something I had done in a while. After the long while of standing, I sat on the bed in an attempt to relax. However, the girls were hooked up to heart and oxygen monitors, and when the levels got too low, or too high, an alarm would go off. The first few hours were like hell for us, as the monitors kept going off. Just as quickly as we sat down, the alarms would blare, and we'd be bolting out of our seats to tend to the girls and do what we could to help them. The tests finally came back by evening time and it was confirmed - They both tested positive for RSV. RSV is a respiratory infection, commonly compared to the common cold in adults. RSV in toddlers can just be watched, but when newborn, premature babies get it as early as our girls did it can be critical. By Tuesday morning I was in nearly as much pain as I was 2 days after the C section - I was just not used to this type of activity. Corey's stress levels are above and beyond anything they've ever been in his life - And he's not sleeping. Sick kids and overly tired parents - Not a good mix.



Tuesday was another day of touch and go. Mackenzie seemed to be better, but little Rayla had developed the symptoms that Mack had the previous day, that ultimately landed us in the hospital. Of course, because of that, we were kept in the hospital for another night of observation. We had no arguments - whatever it took to get the babies healthy. All of Tuesday we just watched and watched them. We learned that one of the only ways to get them better was to constantly suck the snot out of their little noses. So we did - every hour, sometimes more, until their little noses were raw. But we had to do it. We couldn't believe that a baby so small could produce so much nastiness in their sinuses, but the proof was in the puddin'. So we continued for hours, aspirating snot, watching closely over our angels and hovering over the monitors, carefully watching the numbers rise and fall, hoping that they would stay in the normal range. It was an exhausting time for all of us - The girls, because it was so much work for them to just breathe, and for us, because we didn't, couldn't sleep. By Tuesday night we were so out of our minds that we couldn't think straight. The doctor had neglected to come to the hospital for rounds Tuesday evening, and none of the nurses or staff knew what the plan of attack was for the girls. We all put our heads together and made some decisions for the evening, and the respiratory therapist decided to turn the oxygen off and take the girls out of the tent for a while to see if they could breathe on their own. We knew we had to do it at some point, but it was still nerve racking to know that they wouldn't be in there. They were still hooked up to all the monitors, so we did have that reassurance. A sleepless night indeed and worth every moment of it. The girls did wonderful and by Wednesday morning we knew that the doc would release us. We came home Wednesday morning, and were ready to stand post at home to watch the girls and make sure everything was fine.



Cooper had to stay with his grandma one more night just to make sure that germs weren't spread one way or another, but Katie came home. Today, Thursday April 9, Cooper finally came home and once again we're here as a family. The schedules, just life itself for us has been so interrupted by illness, exhaustion and the unexpected. I hope that in the near future we are able to regain our health, our sanity and our lives and that the ucky bug (Coop's new fave words) finds it's way out of our way.

Saturday is Corey's birthday, and he's due for a good spoil. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for him, but I know that if he had his choice it would be a day at the golf course. Actually, that sounds like a really good idea.......I guess I have some work to do!