Easter 2011

As Easter weekend rolled around, I was waiting to see what Cody would do with Caden for his first Easter.  A small part of me worries that if anything were to happen to me, Cody may forget to do important things like teach him the story of Easter and about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.  I really figured Cody would forget the little things like Easter baskets, coloring eggs, etc.

He proved me wrong yet again.  I had already taken care of Easter baskets, cards, and plastic eggs, and bought a prayer book about Easter for Caden--just never told Cody about it.  I woke up Easter morning to eggs already hidden in the yard, a basket for Caden, and an egg coloring kit on the table next to a carton of hard boiled eggs.  To my surprise he does remember the little things--Caden is in good hands! 



Caleb, Ty, Callan, Caden & Cody



Caden and Mimi (Cody's grandmother)

Uncle Butch and Caleb



Caden and his uncle Caleb

  

Love my little family!



Cody even hid an egg filled with milkbones for Bailey

     

Digging for the 'prize egg'

  

All they ended up with was a worm

 

 



Caden loved to shake the coins in the eggs.

Pepaw and Nenaw (Cody's grandparents)

Caden 9 months

I can't believe he's already 9 months old!  I hate to see him growing up so quickly but it just gets more and more fun every day!  He is just starting to cut his first tooth.  Yesterday, he learned how to play "patty cake".  He loves "sharing" his toys--he'll hand it to me, take it back, then hand it to me again, etc.  And i'm told that at daycare he waves at everyone that walks in and out of the room. 

Still just crawls backward and in a circle, but isn't crawling forward yet.  He still loves to stand (and has for several months now) but isn't taking any steps.  I know it's very silly, but it's killing the physical therapist in me.  I have next week off from clinicals-Caden should be crawling after that week of practice.  :)

At his 9 month well visit he weighed 20 lbs 10 oz (50%), was 28 1/4 (50%) inches long, and head circumference 18.5 inches (95%). 

"... I wanna be a rockstar"

This is something Cody wanted me to promise I would never do to our kids.  I agreed on never taking him out in public with a mohawk.  However, anything goes at the house and on the blog! 

I love Caden's post-bath mohawk and I love pestering my husband!

"...this is our temporary home"

When we bought this trailer house, we thought we would be living in it for about a year (only until I graduated and had a job).  Since then reality has set in and we know that we will not be ready financially to buy a place for us to settle down in any time soon.  We will have to live here in the trailer house for at least another year or two on top of that.  Once we realized this was our situation, two things had to happen. 

1) Install a dishwasher---we came across one that someone was giving away.  Notice Cody's jagged line from cutting out the cabinets with a sawzall??  And I'm not sure where the bottom piece is to the dishwasher... who cares, it works!!

2) get the nasty carpet out of the bathrooms!  I will never understand why anyone would ever think that carpet in a bathroom is a good idea.  We just bought some very cheap linoleum squares with the adhesive backing and put those in place of the carpet.  Our house smells MUCH better now that the nasty carpet is out of both bathrooms. 

Too bad we couldn't replace all the carpet in the house.

Now if we just had any sort of storage and closet space we would be set!

 We haven't had a measureable amount of rain since October.  On Friday the wind was blowing like crazy with 60 mph gusts.  A wildfire broke out close to our house and we were told to be prepared to evacuate. The daycare even called me to come get Caden because of the possible evacuation. 



View from my house--doesn't everyone have truck scales in their front yard?!?

So I got home and started packing up the important things.  The fire didn't feel like a huge threat at that point, but with the winds as high as they were you could never be too safe.  Plus, the way my house was shaking I thought if the fire didn't get it the winds were going to knock it off it's blocks. 

So, what's really important when it comes down to packing a few things in a hurry??

Here's what made my list (some of these things are pretty funny--but honestly they were loaded up in the back of this goobers car...)

Sentimental things from friends/family: Caden's blanket, baby baseball glove, 1st pair of cowboy boots and hat from Pop.  Also, a few pricier things that we depend on and couldn't afford to buy again like baby video monitor and a thing we hang on Cadens crib that plays music and lights up.

A box my dad had given me when I was little.  It used to have a picture of a horse on it but it started getting worn out so I mod podged a picture of my dad on it.

My boots (because they are expensive) and a couple of pairs of shoes that would also fit in the boot box.

wedding rings, Tech ring, and 2 necklaces my parents gave me

Caden's baby book, baby monitor, our wedding video, an elephant thing that Cody got me from Iraq (I don't know why but I love it) and Cody's video series of the Pacific and Band of Brothers (only because Cody would make us buy them again)

guns, video camera, and clothes to get us to the next day

Bible from one of Caden's godmother's, Diana, who wrote a very sweet inscription in it.  Also, some of my physical therapy textbooks.  I felt like such a nerd to pack those up but if we lose everything we have (and i mean everything because we don't have insurance) I'm going to have to pass the liscensure exam soon so I can have a job!  I needed those books to study!!

Luckily, everything was fine and I only ended up unpacking everything a couple of hours later.  Not exactly how I wanted to spend my Friday evening but I know I would have been kicking myself had anything happened to our house and I didn't take the time I had to pack a few things up.

Honestly, very few things are really that important anyway.

Emetophobia: Part 2

The patient who threw up a couple of weeks ago strikes again...

She had decided herself that she wanted to be discharged against ALL recommendations.  She just wasn't strong enough to go home alone.  Turns out, we were right... the fire dept had to be called out multiple times to help her get out of her wheelchair and into her bed.  Can you imagine their excitement when they get called out to what they think is some sort of emergency and turns it it's just to help this person into bed?  Again?  I'm sure that wasn't what they were thinking they would be doing when they took this job.

Guess who showed back up in my schedule this morning.  You got it.  She's back. 

I don't mean to sound mean.  In fact, these posts are intended to make fun of myself for my crazy panics. 

She started off with telling us she took a laxative and she thought she was dirty.  After reluctantly checking her rear, I knew we were safe there.  We start to work on moving her from her bed to her chair and she starts complaining of her stomach!  Oh my nightmare, she's going to throw up again.  My heart rate increases, and I'm giving myself a pep talk in my head, "you're gonna be ok, Lacy...this is not a big deal...thank goodness you're behind her supporting and not in front like that poor guy..."

Until she says the next thing, "They gave me that laxative.  Do you have a sheet under me--I'm going to explode out behind soon."

My mental pep talk then turned into, "just breathe, Lacy, just breathe"

It made me start to wonder which was worse--holding a bucket while a stranger gets sick or being covered in explosive poo (that's not my 8 month old son's).  Thankfully neither one happened today.

Determination

8 months

Caden turned 8 months old on March 22.  Here's what he's been up to:

• He's a big eater (as if you can't tell).  He will sometimes eat 3 containers of the stage 2 baby foods at once.  (Doesn't eat peas and can't eat sweet potatoes)
• Such a happy baby-- usually only cries when hungry or sleepy.
• Sleeps from about 8:30pm-6:30am.
• Goes to sleep as soon as we lay him down in his crib even if he wasn't acting sleepy before (He's so easy--I'm aware that it won't always be this way.)
• Not crawling yet, but he tries.  He'll spin around in a circle on his pot belly, and he'll kind of crawl backwards. 
• Still loves to stand.  Will pull to stand on me but not on furniture or anything else yet.
• Waves hello/goodbye (it's amazing how proud this makes you as a first time parent)
• I pretty sure he's starting to understand some of the signs we use (milk, eat, and more) but he's not actually signing them to us.
• Loves playing with buckets and taking everything out of it a piece at a time.
• Babbles a lot
• Starting to show a little stranger anxiety.  He doens't cry or get upset, just has a concerned look on his face instead of his usual smile. 
• I think he weighs about 20 lbs.

Emetophobia

According to dictionary.com, Phobia is defined as "a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it." 

Guilty.  I have a phobia of other people (or myself) vomiting.  It's not because I have a weak stomach and I can't handle it--in fact, it takes a LOT to make me get sick.  It's just an irrational fear.  I hate to admit it, but I avoid public restrooms because I'm afraid someone will come in and get sick while I'm in there.  AND I have been known to plug my ears any time Cody gets up in the middle of the night to use the restroom just because I think there is a possibility that he may puke.  I have a whole list of avoidance behaviors I could tell you but i'm afraid it's too embarrassing because I'm aware of how ridiculous it is. 

Out of curiosity I looked it up.  The fear of vomiting is defined as emetophobia.  At least I know I'm not the only one.

It does, however, make for some fairly entertaining stories when I do encounter the situation.  And I did, last week...
I'm currently doing a physical therapy clinical affiliation at a skilled nursing facility.  I was responsible for evaluating a new patient.  She was very morbidly obese, and completely dependent.  We were slowly trying to get her from her bed to a wheelchair (this is really a total lift that my instructor and another male had to do while I held her trunk upright).  All the sudden she starts complaining of her stomach and asks us to get her a bucket.  OH. MY. WORD.  Total panic comes over me and my heart rate immediately jumps up. 

There were 3 of us working with her. I ran for a bucket...knocking over everything in my path.  Phone hits the floor, papers fall of the table, cups knocked over. Luckily for me, I wasn't strong enough to move her so my instructor was the one standing in front of her that got to hold the bucket (without gloves) while she threw up in it.  I was, however, holding her up from the back side so I got to feel, hear and smell every.single. heave. 

She finished up just as the bucket was becoming dangerously full.  We go jump it in the toilet, and leave the bucket in the bathroom.  I gave her some water and another smaller bucket to rinse and spit the remains (there were plenty).  She finished up with that and I put the puke backwash on the table. 

We attempt to keep moving her on over to her chair. And it hits her AGAIN.  So I run to the bathroom to get the bucket.  Turns out, someone else had gone in there and locked the door. 

Now I'm really panicking because her lunch is about to be all over the 4 of us. I'm bouncing up and down at this point with my hands shaking and looking around for anything to use.  I spotted the smaller bucket and grabbed it in a run, forgetting that it still had the remains of the last episode in it.  I dumped every bit of it down the front of my scrubs and into the floor.  Perfect.  Turns out, she never even threw up again.

We eventually got her all the way into her wheelchair.  Luckily, it was the end of the day so I got to go home and change. 
I did feel very sorry for her and I didn't let her see how I was freaking out (although my instructor and another guy could tell-which has set me up for teasing).  She didn't need to know my heart was beating so hard I thought it would explode. The anxiety is so bad that I prefer wiping the patients over dealing with this kind of thing.

On a positive note, there is a good thing from all this--I am now CERTAIN that acute care is not my thing.  Outpatient orthopaedics, here I come.

"...And you're a big old wuss if you don't jump in the water"

This boy is no wuss.  I'm positive that he would cannonball into the bathtub if he could.    

Pure excitement!  (cute or scary???  I can't decide.)