birthdays and hissyfits and ministrokes, oh my!
Hi, all.
I hope everyone's doing fine. I'm going to try to make it around to my flist today. It looks to be a pretty chilled-out day (I hope!)
It's Joseph's 9th birthday! We're going to celebrate by putting up the Christmas tree, renting a good movie, popping some corn and making some hot cocoa.
It hardly seems possible that he's 9 years old! It seems like just yesterday that he was born. I went into labor after a day of heavy-duty Christmas shopping, but didn't feel like I was really, seriously in labor. After Isaac's labor-a-thon, I felt like it had to suck a lot more to call it "labor." So I got up, painted my nails, watched a movie on TV, and just kind of hung out. My water broke at some point, but I wasn't sure (it's not like it is in the movies.) Finally, my Mom got up and found out that I had been up all night and was in labor and was like "GET IN THE CAR!!!" He was born not much longer after that. It was a really easy birth, except for having the cord around his neck. They ended up having to get him out really fast, and he ended up hanging out in the NICU for a few days becasue he had aspirated fluid. He came home on December 6 -- my brother's birthday.
He's almost as tall as I am! Not that that's difficult for anybody to achieve, but still... I am really not prepared for my kids to be bigger than me. Isaac already is! I know that's the point of raising kids -- they grow up and you want them to get big and healthy and independent. But Isaac's like having another adult in the house and he's only 11! And Joseph's so tall and can do so many things on his own and he's only 9! It seems like they should still be little kids.
It was good to have two helpful big people with me yesterday, though. I took the kids to the Clay Center to see the Lightscapes exhibit, and all went well until time to go. Jonathan decided he wasn't going to leave and threw THE BIGGEST hissyfit. I mean, I've had 4 kids so hissyfits are old news, but this was the worst I've ever seen. People were coming around the corner to see if I was beating him or what. He was screaming and twisting and writhing around... it took Isaac and myself, both trying to shove him down in his stroller and buckle him in to get him out of the building. It was 9 kinds of ugly. I was so embarassed!
We did get to go to visit my Grandma, though. She was having a pretty good day, and was able to talk and get up on her own. She even talked to my brother on the phone for a bit, and ate a hig dinner! (She hasn't been eating much.) Jonathan and Olivia gave her lots of hugs and kisses, and that made me feel good -- I didn't know how they would react to her, because she is so frail and shaky. Thanks to everyone for all the prayers and good wishes. I couldn't believe how well she was doing yesterday! I know I can't expect a full recovery, but it is nice to see her feeling well. She keeps asking if it's Christmas, yet. She loves Christmas with as much excitement as any little kid, and always has. I hope she stays well at least long enough to enjoy the holidays.
It's weird how these mini-strokes (TIAs) work. They're like temporary strokes, and when she's having one, you can't tell the difference between those and a fullblown stroke without medical testing, unless it's a pretty mild one. She can be paralyzed and unresponsive and it's scary as hell. They seem to last for about a day or two, and then she's back to almost-normal. (Almost normal is very weak and frail and confused... she never gets back to normal-normal.) It's still bad... she will probably have a fullblown stroke at some point, and if not the cumulative effect of these TIAs will eventually get pretty ugly. But it amazes me how bad she can get and then come back from it. It must be hell. She is so tough! Tell you what... the women in my family are badass. All of them. They are as tough as the men and then some. And the men are pretty daggone tough, themselves.
She cracked me up one time during one of her first really bad episodes. It's really not funny, but it is. She couldn't talk. She was trying to tell me something and I just couldn't understand it. She kept saying the same mumbled sentence over and over and I could tell she was concentrating so hard on forming those words, and they just weren't coming, and then she said, plain as day "Awwwww, shit!" I couldn't help but laugh. Then she made a sound that could have been laughter, but her face was not cooperating so she couldn't smile. I'm not sure. I hope it was a laugh. I know it's got to be really frustrating and scary to go through that, though.
I hope everyone's doing fine. I'm going to try to make it around to my flist today. It looks to be a pretty chilled-out day (I hope!)
It's Joseph's 9th birthday! We're going to celebrate by putting up the Christmas tree, renting a good movie, popping some corn and making some hot cocoa.
It hardly seems possible that he's 9 years old! It seems like just yesterday that he was born. I went into labor after a day of heavy-duty Christmas shopping, but didn't feel like I was really, seriously in labor. After Isaac's labor-a-thon, I felt like it had to suck a lot more to call it "labor." So I got up, painted my nails, watched a movie on TV, and just kind of hung out. My water broke at some point, but I wasn't sure (it's not like it is in the movies.) Finally, my Mom got up and found out that I had been up all night and was in labor and was like "GET IN THE CAR!!!" He was born not much longer after that. It was a really easy birth, except for having the cord around his neck. They ended up having to get him out really fast, and he ended up hanging out in the NICU for a few days becasue he had aspirated fluid. He came home on December 6 -- my brother's birthday.
He's almost as tall as I am! Not that that's difficult for anybody to achieve, but still... I am really not prepared for my kids to be bigger than me. Isaac already is! I know that's the point of raising kids -- they grow up and you want them to get big and healthy and independent. But Isaac's like having another adult in the house and he's only 11! And Joseph's so tall and can do so many things on his own and he's only 9! It seems like they should still be little kids.
It was good to have two helpful big people with me yesterday, though. I took the kids to the Clay Center to see the Lightscapes exhibit, and all went well until time to go. Jonathan decided he wasn't going to leave and threw THE BIGGEST hissyfit. I mean, I've had 4 kids so hissyfits are old news, but this was the worst I've ever seen. People were coming around the corner to see if I was beating him or what. He was screaming and twisting and writhing around... it took Isaac and myself, both trying to shove him down in his stroller and buckle him in to get him out of the building. It was 9 kinds of ugly. I was so embarassed!
We did get to go to visit my Grandma, though. She was having a pretty good day, and was able to talk and get up on her own. She even talked to my brother on the phone for a bit, and ate a hig dinner! (She hasn't been eating much.) Jonathan and Olivia gave her lots of hugs and kisses, and that made me feel good -- I didn't know how they would react to her, because she is so frail and shaky. Thanks to everyone for all the prayers and good wishes. I couldn't believe how well she was doing yesterday! I know I can't expect a full recovery, but it is nice to see her feeling well. She keeps asking if it's Christmas, yet. She loves Christmas with as much excitement as any little kid, and always has. I hope she stays well at least long enough to enjoy the holidays.
It's weird how these mini-strokes (TIAs) work. They're like temporary strokes, and when she's having one, you can't tell the difference between those and a fullblown stroke without medical testing, unless it's a pretty mild one. She can be paralyzed and unresponsive and it's scary as hell. They seem to last for about a day or two, and then she's back to almost-normal. (Almost normal is very weak and frail and confused... she never gets back to normal-normal.) It's still bad... she will probably have a fullblown stroke at some point, and if not the cumulative effect of these TIAs will eventually get pretty ugly. But it amazes me how bad she can get and then come back from it. It must be hell. She is so tough! Tell you what... the women in my family are badass. All of them. They are as tough as the men and then some. And the men are pretty daggone tough, themselves.
She cracked me up one time during one of her first really bad episodes. It's really not funny, but it is. She couldn't talk. She was trying to tell me something and I just couldn't understand it. She kept saying the same mumbled sentence over and over and I could tell she was concentrating so hard on forming those words, and they just weren't coming, and then she said, plain as day "Awwwww, shit!" I couldn't help but laugh. Then she made a sound that could have been laughter, but her face was not cooperating so she couldn't smile. I'm not sure. I hope it was a laugh. I know it's got to be really frustrating and scary to go through that, though.