Scout is amazing. I have said it over and over, but he hasn’t complained once while in his cast. The closest it has come is the one time he said, “Mom, I can’t wait to get my cast off so I can run around with my cousins.” How sweet is he.
I remember the night I spent in the hospital with him, I was worried about two things. How we would fill his time and if he would feel left out. I’ll tell you what….I thought we would have a lot of movies/television etc., and I was kind of bummed. A television that is constantly on drives me crazy. I don’t like the background noise, and I really think my kids could be doing more useful things with their time. The good news is that there has been a bit more television, but barely. And most of that is because Scout would rather read with me, play games, do activities or about anything other than just sit and veg out. And even better — I found Planet Earth on cable and have it recording every week, so if he is watching something…at least it’s something interesting and educational.
But my ultimate preference (Scout’s latest favorite word) is that he play nicely and creatively with Icka.
And amazingly enough, they have been doing just that.
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My second concern — is that he would feel left out. The good news is that he doesn’t. I have taken a stance that unless it includes water, he can do about anything else. He has taken on that stance, as well as everyone else involved.
Here he is cruising the mall playground.
Hanging at the beach while he is wrapped up tightly thanks to Bella.
And happily watching everyone play while he sits.
(Which might not be a big deal for some kids, but this is a VERY active, fun-loving boy.)
And when there is something he wants or needs, he just gets it or does it himself. Like the day Daddy had white powdered donuts on his desk. Scout figured out a way to get to them.
And then he helped himself.
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One of my favorite things I have learned about Scout is that he likes to challenge himself. There are many times I go to do something for him, and he will say, “No Mom, let me try to do it.” At times, him doing it will add many minutes to the task, but I think it’s cool for him to try and do hard things. He brought tears to my eyes a few days ago when he said, “Mom, do you know why I love you so much?” I told him I didn’t. And then he said, “Mom, I love you because you do everything for me.” I was so pleased to have him look outside of himself and see that I am doing a lot. But when it comes down to it…..he certainly lightens my load, because he does a lot of things for himself.
My kids love Five Guys. So do I — especially because it is cheep! My kids won’t order a thing, but they will sit at the table and crack the free peanuts all afternoon long. This was a favorite stop of ours until Scout got hurt. But we braved it. And with me digging peanut skins out of his cast the rest of the day, I’m not totally sure it was a great idea. But it was — because for the 30 minutes we were there, he was in heaven.
So one of my favorite things to do is take a cooking class from Chef Maurice at the Laguna Beach Culinary Arts school. He is amazing! And I actually think I have him talked into teaching some classes at my house. I’m crossing my fingers. Anyway, for Christmas, I got a few classes from my mom. She also gave a class to Megan. And I gave her a class, and Tristen a few to take with me. So in the end, all four of us took “All About Chicken”, and Tristen and I took “Sauces For Fish”. Both were awesome, and I always come home with a handful of new recipes — but better yet, I come home with new skills.
Here’s Megan as she whips up some Burre Blanc.
Megan was really fun to have at these classes.
My mom liked it but said, “I have cooked my entire life. Now it’s my turn to sit back and let someone cook for me.”
I think that someone is me.
And as long as I get these classes from you Mom….you bet I’ll cook for you!
And Bella is quite the student at these classes.
She takes serious notes, and likes to be very hands on.
Here she is eating my favorite recipe from both nights combined….Swordfish over a Spring Salad.
The name isn’t too impressive, but the food was unreal!
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Chef — I can’t wait to meet up with you in my very own kitchen!
Every time B walks in the house, I just hear, “Where are my babies?”
When she finally tracks down Dash, she just says, “I love him…I just love him!”
I hear you Sis.
Who wouldn’t love this smiley boy?
Scout started out his life eating everything. Now, he is a real pain in the neck. And his little shadow Navy is one also. Scout has become quite the finicky eater, and if Navy is with him while she eats, she copies his objections. I guess the good news is that they are always fans of MY grilled cheese sandwiches, MY quesadillas, MY hot cereal, etc. I’m not bragging that my food is any better than anybody elses. I am just trying to point out that drive thrus are usually a no go. Although Icka would always go for fries, but I usually opt for the apple slices instead. (Maybe that is a bad choice since I often clean out my car and find dried up apples everywhere.)
The other good news is that even though they are picky, they are usually in favor of healthy stuff. Their favorites are tofu, soy beans, fruit, oatmeal, shredded wheat, sugar snap peas, more fruit, soudough toast, seaweed, more fruit and popcorn.
I guess it isn’t such a bad list.
I took my boy on a “special date”. In our home, that means one on one time with one of our kids. I felt like it had been a while since it had been just the two of us, and we needed it. So we headed to the mall one evening to return a few things, and then I was taking him to dinner and dessert. We picked Ruby’s because he likes the kid toys they have. But when we got there, he couldn’t find anything he was dying to have except a “bunch of fruit”. So we ordered him a bowl of melon/pineapple/grapes, etc. Too bad it seemed like it was sitting out all afternoon. But he ate some, and we had a good time.
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Fast forward to four hours later. I was putting him to bed and then went to take a bath. As I got out, he told me his tummy was hurting. This boy is pretty good at getting to stay up later by being hungry/itchy/not tired etc. (All that are true at times.) So I was wondering if this was a time he was finagling. But when I got close to him, I could tell he was telling the truth and feeling pretty bad. So I took him in my robe to sit on the couch. I asked him several times if he had to use the bathroom or if he was going to throw up. I even put him on the toilet, but as a tear rolled down his cheek, I took him off and just cuddled him on the couch. A few minutes later, I could hear his tummy gurgling so I asked him all of the same questions again. Not a moment later, my poor boy started to throw up. Within a second I had my robe covering what was coming out of his mouth. But that first rush of junk went directly down his cast. It was surreal, and as I was helping my boy,I could just picture the doctor saying, “Take good care of this cast because you only get one!”
The bummer is that we have kept his cast spotless. It is clean. There have been no accidents. The last appointment we had, the doctor commented on what good condition it was in. So now, we were faced with possibly the worst thing that can happen to a permanent cast. Wet, smelly, goopy, acidic throw up — all down the front.
I ended up pulling out all of his adding that protects his body from the cast’s hard surface. I pulled it up, and just cut around it. Then with wipes, I wiped down the front and back of his cast as much as I could. By this time, he was so exhausted, he said he just wanted to sleep.
So against my better judgement, and with throw up in his hair, I let this poor guy finally shut his eyes for the night. I just wanted to spend hours cleaning him properly, but he needed to sleep. SO Micah manufactured a good arrangement. He put his waterproof running jacket on him. And we placed him on a waterproof-covered bean bag, propped his feet on a hospital pillow, covered him with blankets and had a throw up bucket next to him.
I slept on the couch next to him, and he didn’t move a muscle until about three that morning when he became pretty restless. I bought us some time by moving him to our bed next to Micah. Somehow a switch up usually gets us a few more hours.
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So when he woke the next morning - as happy and non-sick as a person can be - I finally got to scrub him down. I put him over the bath and washed his hair a few times. I pulled more padding out of his cast and cut it out. Then I got a soapy washcloth and reached as far as I could down his cast. I know it is wet, but the alternative was far worse. After that, I lotioned him up, put a few squirt of cologne on him, got a clean new shirt on him and WALLAH…almost as good as new. We had Bella smell test it (the girl with K9 sniffing abilities) and she gave it a thumbs up.
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So now, I would like to thank Ruby’s for a night from you know where.
I mean food poisoning from meat, I get.
But your fruit?
That’s NASTY!
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I was interested to see how a non padded cast would work out. I knew not to say anything like, “Is it bothering you” or “Does it hurt” because I knew that might open the flood gates. So without saying anything, I have yet to hear a complaint. So I guess it is all good.
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And let’s hope so. I guess Scout got picking fever, because I walked into the family night room a week later, and saw that he had picked out a bunch more if his lining.
When I asked him why he did it….
He said, “Mom, it is so cool. I am making a city around my cars.”
Well my little artist…have at it!
I love love love Dash.
He is my baby that smiles.
He is pleasant and really sweet.
Micah was saying to a friend that other day, “It is amazing. This baby will smile back at us. We will talk to him and try to get him smile…and he does.” My friend and I were laughing and she said, “Yeah, that is what babies do.” He went on to explain that his smiles weren’t random, but they were actual reactions! I finally had to interject to let him know that normal babies do that. It was just Scout and Navy who stared at us without expression!
I didn’t love the baby stage nearly as much with my first two. Probably because I didn’t appreciate how short-lived it is.
He is cute, and looks more like Scout every day.
His little ears have popped out just like Scouts and have become one of my favorite features on him.
He laughs with me.
He LOVES when I sing “We All Live In A Yellow Submarine” while I move his arms. It is the same thing I did with Scout, and they both find it really funny. (Navy didn’t.)
He has outgrown his smallest clothes, but I still jam him into the bear outfit that I die over.
He loves to be in a million blankets.
He is an amazing cuddler.
He still has a goopy eye, but the doctor has called in a prescription.
He is a good sport about Navy swinging him like crazy, Navy forcing his plug in and everything else Navy does a little too eagerly.
I love love love him!
And his birthday present to me……on his three month birthday, my boy slept from 8 until 8.
(I know I could have forced this a bit sooner, but I liked my quiet nights with a boy gazing up at me with pure love just oozing from him.)
Navy got this darling cake stand for her birthday.
She plays with it constantly.
But one night as we were cleaning it up and putting it back together, a few pieces went missing.
I kind of find this annoying, because I like everything to stay in good condition — and missing pieces kind of screws that up.
I asked her repeatedly where they were, and she is plenty smart to remember where they went.
She acted like she had no memory.
I partially believed her, but she did have a slight funny tone to her denial.
Fast forward a few hours as I went to change Dash’s diaper.
Guess what I found stuck down his outfit.
She’s a weasel.
Poor guy.
Glad the cake stand is back to “nice” state.
Last week in Relief Society we had a lesson on teaching your children how to work hard. It was a great lesson, and I am a total fan of the subject matter. So you can imagine how happy I was when weasel #2 kicked it into high gear the other night as I was cooking dinner.
Look at the little Icka setting the table on her own. Now, I’ll admit, there were numerous things wrong, and without Scout’s help it was bound to happen. Like we don’t usually use paper place settings or straws. But she got the plates and cups in the correct places. She folded the napkins and got silverware. This is a job that she and Scout do together on a usual basis. But tonight, without Scout’s help (for obvious reasons), she took the initiative and took charge. What a good little girl!
My trick of wearing Onion Goggles is awesome.
So when I saw my Mom tearing up, I made her wear them.
They did the trick.
And I don’t know why she was annoyed at me snapping a few pics?!
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