Permanent Trauma?

After five days, I decided it was time to pick up Caleb’s birthday stuff. He’d been having fun with the aftermath, and as long as it was contained to the living room, I was trying not to be neurotic about the mess. So we grabbed a trash bag, and we were making a game of picking up tissue paper. “Trash!” he’d yell, as he slam-dunked yet another bit of wrapping paper.

“Trash!” I’d yell, as I tossed plastic packaging from one of his many cars.

I pushed it too far when I let the air out of the first balloon. He threw a tantrum unlike any I’ve EVER seen from him. It was completely devastating to me for having caused that kind of sadness in my little one. However, my regrets faded as the crying kept going on and on. And on. I finally had to threaten to put him back to bed before he stopped wailing.

Lesson learned: get rid of the rest of the balloons tonight when he’s in bed.

We had to get some meds for Gavi’s thrush. He loves it! I told myself that I would taste it before making him take it, but didn’t have the guts. It smells like almond extract, and he licks his lips after every application. On the other hand, I remember when it was easy to get Caleb to take medication as well. Maybe it’s just a phase.

Grandma and Grandpa Fashbaugh left yesterday. They’re planning on coming back sooner rather than later since they’re going to be in the country for at least another couple of months. Mom made a comment that was probably the nicest thing she’d ever said to me: “We’re so proud of the way you guys are raising your children.” She was referring to the discipline issue and the fact that neither Jonathan or I are screamers. Twenty minutes after she said it, I was ready to wring Caleb’s neck.

That's how you know that grace in functioning in my life. That little man can whine, scream and disobey until he's blue in the face, but God's grace is always big enough to keep me from yelling. Sometimes I deliberately override that grace and make bad choices about my own attitude. It just keeps me humble when Caleb makes similar bad choices.

Man, do I love my job!

How oh-old are you?!

Well, it’s been a busy and adventurous week around here! Not only did we have a busy week getting ready for Caleb’s birthday, but we FINALLY got to witness the marriage of Alisa Gail Fashbaugh to Christopher Wade Rothe. DANG, is it good to have one sister married off! My kids need cousins!

So on Thursday, Caleb Zakai turned two! It was a wonderful day, because Grandma and Grandpa Fashbaugh, Uncle Bud, Aunt Barb, cousin Mark, Alisa, and her two friends Corrie and Jodi came to celebrate with us! Caleb is generally the life of the party, so it’s not like anything was terribly different, but we did have a good time!

He was blessed with a half million cars and trucks! (I picked up a bunch at the dollar store, not thinking about the fact that he would also get some from other people.) He’s having so much fun with them! I also bought him a miniature Radio Flyer that is meant to be for pulling stuffed animals, but I’m guessing it will serve as nothing more than a car transporter.

Caleb is over to my left just counting. He counts to himself in a sing-song voice. He’s adorable! But he’s pretty much stopped singing the alphabet. How odd!

I made a school bus cake for Caleb’s birthday party, then bought an additional chocolate cake in case people preferred that. They were equally enjoyed. I can’t wait to get pictures of the cake and whatnot up ~ it turned out fairly adorable! It was a lot of fun, and it was fun to have the Fashbaugh grandparents have a chance to spend a birthday with us. It happens infrequently enough that it’s a BIG DEAL. Of course, the Garmane grandparents were bummed out of their minds to not get to spend it with him. Prolonging the celebration, I guess!

My sweet little Gavi seems to have thrush. I was planning on home-medicating with acidophilus, but I really don’t want to risk any issues with him, so we’re going to the doc tomorrow. I’m starting to have some serious pain when I feed him, which I’ve been chalking up to an irregular eating schedule, but it's gotten so hurt-y that it could very well be an extension of his infection.

Gavi already turns when he hears Caleb’s voice, and Caleb will just sit with Gavi for twenty or thirty minutes and giggle at him. Caleb is also really big into rubbing noses, and Gavi sits still for him to do it as many times as he wants.

The wedding was exquisite. If I hadn’t had my wedding when and where it was, I would have wanted to trade with Alisa. (Mine was better for me, though.) It was outside, and even though it’s risky to do anything outside in Colorado in late October, the weather was perfect. It was such a blessing to see those two kids have a dream wedding without any major snafus. The person controlling the sound system was determined to give them a couple of chuckles, though! The music started playing a couple times in totally random segments. I cried probably more than anyone there. Of course, I probably prayed harder than anyone there that they would end up together.

Except maybe Chris. I think his prayers may have outstripped mine by a long shot!

I got to meet some friends of the Fashbaugh family that I’ve been hearing about for years, and finally had a chance to learn firsthand about how awesome they are. Angie and Katie are hands down my new favorite wedding friends. I had forgotten Kleenex, they hooked me up. They brought a butt-kicking goodie bag for Caleb since they thought I was taking him to the ceremony. Seriously? I knew them less than 24 hours before I decided that next time anyone I know gets married, I’m inviting them. I might even have to hook people up just to see them again before too much time passes.

Jonny is off to Baltimore today, and he’ll come back on Wednesday. I was planning on going back to Loveland, but today will be the last chance Mom and Dad Fashbaugh have to spend time with these little cuties, so we’ll just stay here.

It’s kind of a relief. Packing the three of us just for three days necessitated NINE BAGS last time. Ridiculous. I’ll put that packing time into trying to restructure the neatness of my house after Caleb has run amok with all his birthday toys!

Monday Catch All!

It’s been an EVENTFUL week, let me tell you! I took the boys up to my folks while Jonathan was in Toronto (where he kicked behind – TWO contracts in three days!) and looked forward to having a different environment keep me from missing him too badly. This was his first trip since Gavi was born, after all.

I didn’t have time to miss him! I was too busy dealing with my elder son. My sweet Caleb has taken his angel/devil child ratio to about fifty/fifty. If you will recall, on earlier occasions I’ve given him a ninety/ten ratio. Gone are those days. I’m assuming it’s for a while ~ but refuse to give up hope that it is a very SHORT phase!

While there, we went to Grandma’s school to have lunch with the big kids. Afterwards, we took him out to the playground where he held court with the fifth graders in my mom’s class. I’m not kidding, it was like he had his own little entourage of eight or nine kids with every move he made. They encouraged him when he got a little nervous going down one of the bigger slides, cheered him when he went down, and followed him to his every destination. It was adorable. There were two girls there that I would have immediately hired as baby-sitters, too. I need to meet some kids around here so that I don’t burn my sweet sisters out!

When Grandpa came home from work one night, Caleb met him at the door. My dad wears camouflage fatigues for his job, and Caleb stared up at him, then asked, “Jammies?” It was so cute for my son to accuse my big bad Daddio of wearing something so silly as JAMMIES to work! To avoid casting aspersions on the stylings of the United States military, I should note that Caleb has several pairs of camouflage pajamas.

Our little Gavi is grinning a LOT! It helps my attitude a lot, because that little stinker seems to have his days and nights mixed up, so he sleeps during the day when I’m trying to be chipper for my two year old. On less than five hours sleep most of the time. Who was it that said that babies are cute to keep parents from eating their young?

Okay, so it’s not that bad, but I really did have to stop myself from throwing a pillow at him one night last week. He’ll fall asleep just long enough for me to get back into bed and get comfortable. Then he wakes up and hollers. The timing is really that precise. After about four rounds of that, I almost lost my composure and threw things at him. Again, it’s a good thing he’s that cute!

And HUGE! At his one month appointment this morning, we found out that he is ELEVEN POUNDS. At one month! Yowser! We doubled up on appointments and did Gavi’s one month and Caleb’s two year today. Guess who was the bigger baby? (No, not mommy!) Caleb refused to be measured or weighed, so we ended up estimating his height based on where he was kicking, and I had to be weighed holding him kicking and screaming, then we subtracted my weight. All of this was before we even knew he had to have shots! Criminy Grits!

It’s so funny, because I had just said yesterday that it was hard not to feel prideful when people stop me all the time to tell me how cute and well-behaved he is. We went to Rez on Saturday night, and people were literally stopping me in the aisles to compliment him. Which, as every mom knows, is directly attributable to herself. His beauty, his good manners, and the fact that he’s as smart as a whip.

The kicking and screaming and poopy attitude we’ll put on Daddy’s shoulders.

We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday! I hope to get some pictures up online soon, because MAN, is that screaming Caleb screaming cute! They let him sit on their tractor, too. So precious! Gavi rode around on Grandma’s tummy while Mommy played photographer and Grandpa pushed Caleb in the wheelbarrow.

Speaking of pumpkin patches reminds me of that little Dean Fisk, which reminds me of his new baby sister! Welcome to the world, Abi Joy Fisk! We can’t wait to meet you!

The ark was too crowded!

Noah has abandoned his ark in Caleb’s room. Now he prefers to drive a 4x4 with his head sticking out of the sun roof and Piglet as his co-pilot. There are some crazy stories happening at the Fashbaugh house this week.

Not the least of which is that I’m almost back to normal! My pain has dissipated to the point that I can feel the tooth pain where my root canal will happen. And my smile is still just a skosh wonky, but honestly, if you didn’t know me you wouldn’t think it was anything to write home about. My left eye still doesn’t blink all the way, but I’m trying to remember to push it closed occasionally.

Jonathan got a video of Gavi rolling over onto the website. I kept trying to get it, but as soon as I’d put him on his tummy to grab the camera, he’d roll over before I pushed the button! Now my goal is to capture him going from his back to his tummy, because he’s done that a few times, too. But he’s not as consistent with that. He apparently really likes to be on his back!

If I had the camera now, I would be able to capture Caleb running a relay and laughing hysterically in one of my shoes. Op, he just went with both of them! He’s basically just putting on my slip-on shoes and running about four steps before he falls down, shoes flying and cackles like a fiend. Man, do I love that kid!

Gavi is going to be the best dressed kid in the tri-state area, let me tell you! He’s got all of Caleb’s clothes, the Smith boys’ hand-me-downs, Jaxson’s hand-me-downs, and now a bunch of super cool clothes of his very own! And if you think that’s too big a heap of clothes for one little munchie, let me tell you that we’ve got an urper on our hands. He goes through a half-dozen outfits a day sometimes because of his ‘spit up’ problem. The bigger issue is that no one is giving MOMMY new super cool clothes! And she has to change shirts as often as Gavi does! And the laundry is becoming a concern as well. OH! And unrelated but still worth mentioning – I have to empty the diaper genie every other day now! UGH!

Jonathan is leaving for Toronto in the morning, so the boys and I are going to go spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Garmane. It will just be a good opportunity to have a big backyard for Caleb, really, because they’ll still be at work during the day. But it will be fun for all of us to spend time together at night. Next week, Grandma and Grandpa Fashbaugh will arrive! They’re coming mostly for Auntie Sisa’s wedding, but we’ll have some time with them too. Grandpa hasn’t seen Caleb since Christmas!

Wednesday Update

When you name your kid “God is my strength,” you better be prepared for what that strength entails! I’ve experienced the pain of a headbutt to my jaw many a time when I’ve just been sitting and staring at him. But this morning, he proved that his rolling over the other day wasn’t a fluke. FIVE TIMES I put him on his tummy and kept Caleb away from him. Every time, he rolled to his back. Yikes! I guess we’ll just see how long it takes him to go from his back to his tummy now!

(Five minutes after I wrote the above paragraph he almost did it already. Not kidding. Sheesh!)

We took the boys to the Harvest Festival at Four Mile House this past Saturday, and would you believe that I forgot the camera?! And the sunscreen. And countless other things, like cash. But it was so much fun! It was absolutely free, then you had the option of buying the fixings for a life-size scarecrow that you stuffed yourself there! You could also buy a pumpkin – the real reason I’m sick that I forgot my camera. If you haven’t seen Terra’s website with her son Dean at the pumpkin patch, check this out! You’ll see why I’m so jealous! I’m going to try to take them to another patch up north two weekends from now, but I’m not sure any pumpkins will be left! Honest to goodness, I hate pumpkin and don’t care about jack-o-lanterns ~ I just want the pictures of my boys with pumpkins! (Or at least Caleb!)

I took the double stroller out for the first time on Monday to go grocery shopping. MAN, that thing drives like a TANK! I was so pleasantly surprised when we first got Caleb’s stroller – even though it was big, it drove so smoothly! This is the same brand, it’s just about half again as big, and is everything that is the opposite of smooth. Still, it’s fun. Upper body workout just keeping the stroller going straight!

My face is getting SO much better! The pain started abating on Sunday, and keeps getting easier to the point that I’m not taking any pain meds anymore! And the paralysis is getting better, too! I can see my left front tooth when I smile now! (Before, my grimace was so lopsided that really looked like I only had teeth on my left side.) Praise God! Thanks to everyone for their prayers, and for putting up with me when I didn’t return calls or jump at the chance to get together right away. Dealing with the pain and the pride were both keeping me a little subdued.

Other piece of news in my world – I need a ROOT CANAL! What the craziness?! One of my oldest fillings has a cavity underneath it and was causing pain before Gavi was born. They’re going to take out another one of the old fillings that is wearing out to keep it from happening again. Jonathan’s been telling me that I’m going to have to have them replaced. Blech. Even though I really like this dental office, I don’t like people messing in my mouth. Can I just say that Caleb was a GEM, though! He sat in the chair across from my chair the entire time. And when we were waiting for the dentist to come after the initial interview, he sat on my lap and we read books and played with trains and penguins. For an HOUR!

Okay, that’s enough out of me. I need to start posting more frequently, less often. But I’m not going to hold myself to it! I’m Amanda – I ramble. (Those of you whose phone bills have been jacked up due to my lengthy voicemails bear testament to that!)

So many firsts!

We went to the park today! Getting ready to go was far more drama than it needed to be, in my opinion. I have a double stroller, but I couldn’t figure out how to open it. So I set it against a wall and went to get the single stroller ~ but Caleb assumed that we just weren’t going or something. So he started dragging this ginormous stroller across the living room, shrieking like a teeny banshee. And HE hasn’t ridden in the stroller for months, but the second I tried to put Gavi in it, he threw another tantrum. So Caleb rode in the stroller and Gavi rode in his kangaroo pouch on Mommy’s chest.

Caleb stayed in the stroller until we got to the edge of the park, then I let him loose to chase birds and squirrels. Then at the playground, there were a bunch of little girls for him to play with ~ but for once, he just stared at them instead of joining them. He was unusually shy! There was one little girl who was two and a half who was doing the kind of things that Caleb usually does – scaring the pee out of her parents! I thought for sure that he would join her in her daredevil-y-ness, but no such luck.

On the way home, Caleb insisted on pushing the stroller. Since Gavi was still across my front, I let him. Caleb’s pushing of the stroller consists of pulling the handle down to his level, which raises the front wheels to an even higher level. Steering is tough because he’s only got two wheels on the ground and absolutely no way of seeing past the front. When I try to help steer or push he throws an unholy fit. I need to get a picture or video of it sometime, actually! Anyway, I was fine with that while we were in the park, but when we were crossing streets, I needed to help him steer and go a little faster. He actually threw himself down in the middle of the street to protest my helping. I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him the rest of the way across the first time. The second time, there were actually cars waiting on us to cross. SO humiliating! He got a pretty good smack for that one.

Part of both of our problems was that by the time we got home, we’d been gone for more than three hours. I was tired and thirsty, he was tired and thirsty, and Gavi was HUNGRY! It made for a cranky threesome.

Caleb will lay down with Gavi during tummy time, and when I put him on his back finally, Caleb rolls over. He will clock a lot of time patting Gavi on the back and saying “Shh” this year, too. It’s so fun.

As for me, I’ve been looking for silver linings in my facial situation. Honestly, I could do an infomercial for a cheap botox knockoff or something. If you drew a line down the middle of my face and compared them as a before and after shot, I could convince someone to use anti-aging meds – there are NO wrinkles on the left side of my face! When I raise my eyebrows, only the right one raises, and it wrinkles up my forehead something fierce. When I smile – no smile lines on the left side! C’mon, find joy in adversity!

Jonny and Caleb are dancing to Paula Abdul in the kitchen as I type this. Jonathan just joked that Caleb is “doomed to be a white boy,” because they’re clapping to the music. It’s so bouncy!

First week and a half down!

The first time we took Gavi and Caleb out in the car together, Caleb thought he was in heaven, getting his little brother all to himself in the back seat. No pushy mom or dad to interrupt them, dontcha know! Gavi was staying pretty quiet through Caleb’s conversation, but then he started doing that wonderful baby whimper that we all love. Caleb got so excited that he was babbling at us about Gavi’s talking. I said, “What is Gavi saying?”

“Oink,” was his succinct reply.

Maybe they were talking in the language of the swine, who knows. But it cracked us up tremendously.

The stupid Bells Palsy doesn’t seem to be doing any better, and on Monday I went to the doctor to see if they could prescribe anything for the pain. The whole left side of my face feels like I’ve taken a tenderizer to it, and I really haven’t! They actually did have a medication that might help more than what I’ve been taking, but it would mean stopping breastfeeding for a while to see if it worked, and stopping as long as the pain lasted if it did work. I’m not ready to give up on that yet, so I’ve decided to stay off the drugs for a while. So the pain remains, and I’m starting to lose my patience with it.

Caleb just took off Gavi’s socks to try to put them on his own feet, and now he’s trying to put them back on. Oh, and I got pictures of him riding his tricycle naked after his bath this morning. Man, is he a cutie!

What else? Gavi already sleeps almost five hours at night. It really is a blessing, because with everything else that’s going on, I really need sleep. Plus, my little Caleb Z takes up so much of my energy during the day ~ when I was on maternity leave with him, I really COULD sleep when he slept. Not so much with multiple children. But there are many moms out there who have done it before, and with a lot less sleep than five hours in a row with a week and a half old baby! (Of course, I’m worried that it’s only because I’m still taking percocet for my face pain. What if I quit and he stops sleeping? Not going to worry about it!)

 Jonathan Fashbaugh replied...

Yay, Manders! You're doing great, and we're all praying for you.