Check It Off The List

It has been a busy week around the Garcia household. Dad has been home all week which means a lot more gets done around the house, because I have a second set of hands in the evenings. 

1.  We've done (most of) John's occupational therapy homework.  We've played with the thera-putty even though John really, really dislikes the feel of it.  We've used the brush every evening (not every two waking hours).  I made some pudding finger paint that we played with as a family on Tuesday night for dessert.  We haven't been drawing with sidewalk chalk and we're not getting him all the sensory stimulation that he probably needs, but we're new to this - so the effort we're putting in should count for something.

2.  I spent an hour last night talking to a friend who I haven't kept up with the way I should.  He was a major piece of my support system in graduate school, a colleague during my summer internship, a shoulder to cry on numerous times, and my voice of reason the only time in my life I've been "hopping" mad.  We only talk every 6 or 8 months.  I'm guilty of letting his call go to voicemail because I'm tending to other things and then not calling him back.  Yet, he hasn't given up on me.  I always feel great after I get off the phone with him. Our lives have taken decidedly different paths since grad school.  He's working full time at a college with fraternity and sorority kids - I've gotten married, had two kids and stay at home.  Still we love chatting and hearing what each other is up to on a day to day basis. That's what friends are for...to make you feel better about yourself.  What a blessing!

3.  I haven't panicked, raced to the ER or called the doctors office despite the fact that my oldest was literally tripping over himself yesterday.  In the past 24 hours he has scraped up both his knees and both elbows on the sidewalk, fallen out of bed during his nap giving him a knot over his left eye that is turning black as I type, and slipped out of the shower crashing down on his head creating a half-dollar size black knot instantaneously.  Instead, I've kissed boo boos, iced with frozen vegetables, dabbed neosporin, and watched for dilated pupils. Then, for good measure - we tucked him into bed with a dose of tylenol.  We'll see what today brings.

My Own Therapy

One of John's favorite pastimes since we've moved into the rental house is to sit in the neighbor's backyard and watch the cars on the highway drive past.  We sit on the bank, count cars, wave to motorcycles, and say "vrrrmmm, vrrrmmm."  He LOVES it!  I, on the other hand, have never been much into cars.  Unlike his father, I can't identify the makes and models as the cars pass by and I will never know how many cylinders are in the engine of any car based on the sounds it makes as it leaves the stoplight by our house. 

Yet, I have grown to love the time we spend watching the cars.  Why?  Because I spend that time weeding the neighbors landscaping.  Weird, right?  The bed next to where we sit has become long overgrown.  It was clearly put in to make the neighborhood look nice from the street in front.  The plants, mostly greenery, are still in great shape, but weeds have overtaken the area. 

I like to think that my weeding the bed is a subtle way of saying thank you to our neighbors for letting us sit in their yard a few afternoons a week.  More importantly, I find the weeding extremely therapeutic for some reason.  The process of deciding something is weed-ish and yanking it out of the ground is most enjoyable.  I believe it gives me a sense of control in a life that is often controlled by toddler naps, nursing babies, and husband travel schedules.  I love that every time I walk away from that bed, it looks just a little bit better. 

I'm not sure the neighbors even notice us sitting at the edge of their yard.  I doubt seriously they realize the bed is being weeded.  They have a lawn service that cuts their grass so I don't even think they even notice the weeds laying in the yard waiting to be run over by the lawn mower.  The cars driving by probably don't even see the bed.  (I've lived in this area for nearly 20 years and never noticed it until I was looking at  moving into the house next door.)  Yet, we sit there.  It's become my own therapy session a couple times a week.  John watches the cars, I weed the bed, and Nathan - well, he just hangs out with us.

So, if your looking for my therapist's office, it's the space closest to the weed free area of my neighbor's landscaping.

Count It All

It's been one of those weeks!  A lack of sleep, lack of husband, and lack of activities planned has resulted in me having a lack of patience and certainly a lack of charitable thoughts towards my children.  Nathan has gone back to waking up every couple hours to nurse and John is still waking up at least once a night.  I'm staying up too late trying to do things around the house.  As a result, the longest stretch that my boys sleep (roughly 8pm to 1am) is only getting me about an hour of sleep. *sigh*

So I'm searching for the small successes this week...and searching is what it's taking.

1.  John started occupational therapy this week.  We had to adjust his naptime on Tuesday to accomodate it, but we're hopeful that we can move the appointment to a more appropriate time in the future.   Right now it was just important to get the OT started.  John did well!  He loved playing in Ms. Diane's tunnel and did stick his hand in some finger paint - although I think he was trying to wipe his find off on the paper as opposed to actually finger painting.  Ms. Diane also taught me a brushing technique to use with John up to every two hours.  I'm not sure I notice a difference in his behavior because of it, but I know he likes it...mostly because about every 3 hours or so he brings me the brush and brushes his own arm with it.

2.  A bunch of phone calls that were on my to-do lists are no longer on the list!  This includes Sam's Club, a doctor's office, a bank, and the repair shop.  Now I can pre-order my Sam's Club supplies, have the Rx I needed, got a copy of a loan application I filled out nearly 4 years ago, and have an appointment to get my car fixed.

3.  I suppose I'll count it as a succcess that I know my patience is thin and my attitude is not what it should be.  Maybe offering it up in prayer will help me make it through the end of the week with a better disposition?  Prayers on my behalf are graciously accepted as well...I need all the help I can get...

Three Cheers for Family Fun!

It's Small Successes Thursday!  Man - where does the week go?  It's been a fun and busy week in the Garcia household.  Here's an update of what we've been up to...

1.  Matt and I took John to see Shrek the Musical at the Fabulous Fox Theater.  We attended the Kids on Broadway matinee on Saturday so the place was hopping with kids of all ages.  The local restaurants had kids-eat-free specials, all the kiddos got a backpack and a Shrek pin, and there were activities galore for everyone to participate.  John made his own 'Freak Flag' and used the $20 that Grandma gave him to buy a pair of Shrek ears (which coincidentally, he hasn't taken off since Saturday).

2.  I took both the boys apple picking on Monday.  The MOMS Club went to Eckert's Farm in Belleville and I braved it with both boys in tow.  John picked a few apples before he was bored with it and Nathan slept the whole time.  However, we did gather enough apples to come home and make some homemade baby (read as 'really, really thinned out') applesauce for Nathan.  It's in the freezer awaiting the magic day when my littlest man takes interest in something other than mama's milk.

3.  Matt is normally the one who plays with the boys outside (Sorry, I love air conditioning!).  But with Matt out of town this week, I've taken the boys to two different playgrounds this week.  We played at the Maryville School playground on Tuesday and the Scnhucks Memorial playground on Wednesday.  While we were at the Schnucks park two swans swam right up to us on the lake.  John thought it was amazing!  It made me a little nervous - what would I do with both boys if the swans got ticked at us? - but John's smile was worth the knot in my stomach.

Check out other families' successes over at Faith and Family Live!

8 Days?!?!

Children/Infants are amazingly resilient.  Nathan successfully went 8 days without a bowel movement last week.  The doctor has told us not to worry until day 5 - so we didn't.  Then day 5 came and went, as did day 6, day 7, and most of day 8.  That warranted a call to the pediatrician.  After explaining all the things we had tried on days 5-8 we were finally prescribed a Rx laxative.

8 days, 4 bottles of juice, 3 doses of karo syrup, 2 suppositories, 1 Rx laxative later and countless warm baths...We have poop!

It amazes me the things I get excited about nowadays.

Getting It Done

On Thursdays Danielle (over at Faith and Family Live!) encourages us to celebrate the little things because she knows that those "little" things add up over the week.  Let's celebrate!

1.  I washed the windows.  And I'm not talking a quick wash.  I'm talking the whole shebang!  I Windexed (is that a word?) the inside and outside of every window in the house.  I scrubbed all the window screens.  I washed the glass storm doors that lead to the porch, the garage, and the backyard.  I washed the curtains in the dining room.  Let the sun shine in!

2.  I attempted to straighten out billing issues with two different doctors' offices.  It amazes me that so many physician offices have problems with our insurance.  It's United Healthcare!  I'm not talking some obscure, never heard of, insurance...  Nonetheless, I swear that I spend more time explaining to billing offices how to properly submit a claim to our insurance.  It appears that I have resolved the issue with the radiologist who turned us over to a collection agency without notifying us.  After convincing them to submit a paper claim our insurance is cutting that office a check this week.  And the lab that did all my pregnancy lab work is resubmitting an electronic claim (I'm not hopeful) for my 2nd trimester labs - the only claim not yet paid from my pregnancy & delivery of Nathan.  We'll have to see if that one actually arrives at the insurance company's claim department.

3.  I spent most of Saturday, Sunday and Monday hanging out with my family.  It was great to have Matt home all weekend and not trying to catch up on stuff from work.  (When he travels all week we sometimes lose him to the basement to do expense reports or the like on the weekends).  We played outside a ton because the weather was B-E-A-UTIFUL!  We played with bubbles, the sprinkler, bikes, the swing set, and swam in Grandma and Grandpa's hot tub - twice!  We had the family over for fajitas one night.  We enjoyed the playground at church after mass.  What  a wonderful weekend!

What successes are you celebrating this week?

End of the Month Success

Yay for the end of August!  (If for no other reason than the end of August means it is time to celebrate my birthday)  Overall I've had a great week - so that's worth sharing with the blogging community.

1.  I made these precious gifts for the expecting mommies that I know and the project only overtook the table for 24 hours.  That's impressive by my standards.

2.  I got the calendar and newsletter for my MOMS Club completed and posted online.  (Did I mention I agreed to be the secretary for this organization in an earlier post?  Maybe not)  I'm impressed with my creativity on both tasks and I think I can continue to improve on the newsletter as I get a little more practice under my belt and buff up on my journalism skills (which I haven't used since I wrote for my high school newspaper)

3.  I turned 29!  Happy Birthday to Me!  And my boys baked me a cake...it was the first cake any of them made.  I'm not sure how much Nathan had to do with it, but John enjoyed playing with the mixer and Matt can now claim to have baked a cake.  Now - if they would have sprayed the pan with non-stick cooking spray it might not have required 2 full canisters of frosting to hold the cake together.  Nonetheless...I could taste the love. <3

John helped put the candles on :)