Princess Fussypants and her Court...

Aspen has a new game called "Let's scream unless someone is sitting next to me" It's loads of fun.

Dominic, aka "Scooter" has found a new fascination with the pillar in the playroom. Remember Flick from "The Christmas Story" when he got his tongue stuck to the flagpole?

and Ryan~ well, Ryan has a new fascination with making fart noises with his mouth. Yep. Tried his new talent out loud and proud in Old Navy this weekend at anyone who looked at him.

Good times.

You've GOT to be kidding me...

Aspen and Dominic decided to tag team Drew and I with 102.5 degree fevers last night. So after Tylenol doses, cold washcloths and temp checking every 30 minutes, somewhere along the line I got about 4 hours of sleep. Only woke up once in that solid time when Drew walked into the bathroom door.

After amazingly not falling asleep at work, although there are spotty periods of the day that I can't seem to remember, I rushed home because Drew set up an appointment with some random guy to talk to us about an awning thingy for the backyard. In my delirious state, I must have somehow offended the guy because what should have been a 45 minutes ordeal only lasted about 10 minutes. The meeting pretty much came to an end when I forgot he was in earshot when I made a not so nice comment about how they were ugly. Oops.

Then I decided to look online for high chair covers. I'm tired off wiping down restaurant highchairs every time I go out. However, I can only seem to find GIGANTIC shopping cart covers.Granted these double as high chair covers, but they are HUGE. They look like bed-in-a-bags. I do not need comforters. These things come with pillows. The likelihood that a] I would be grocery shopping and b] I would be there long enough for one of the kids to feel the need to curl up in the cart is pretty slim to none.

So there are my random thoughts for the day. I'm going to curl up in a shopping cart cover and go to bed.

Back home...

Yesterday we got to the hospital at 6am, for 7am surgery. They took her back and we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally around 11:30 the surgeon came out to speak with us. They were unable to get an IV in so they had to put in a central line. Then she had breathing trouble so that delayed the surgery. He took xrays and everything looked great, so we went to see her and in recovery The PICU team came down to evaluate her because of the breathing problem and since she had no apnea issues in recovery, released her to go to the Peds floor. We then went to have her MRI done to make sure all bones, tendons etc were perfect.

They weren't.

Now prior to surgery, the DR told us he has NEVER had to go back in and fix anything. Aspen ruined his perfect record.

They kept her NPO and scheduled us for surgery # 2 after 5:30. Then she spiked a 101 degree fever. So they pumped her full of Tylenol to try and bring it down. Thankfully it fell to 99 right before they took her back for round 2. Around 8ish, he came back out and explained that her tendons were too tight, and they kept pushing the hip out of socket, so he had to lengthen the tendons. He said if it was not perfect that he would eat his tie. Oh, and casually mentioned that it was his wedding anniversary. I hope he wasn't expecting us to run and get him a card.

Back to MRI. Where, to top the day off, the coils on the mat broke. So the ENTIRE MRI had to be restarted again. At this point Drew and I are both so delirious that we fell asleep in the MRI room. How that happened I have no idea because even with earplugs in it sounds like a jackhammer. Finally at 10pm they finish and we get her in her room.

So, needless to say, we are exhausted, and Aspen has a serious attitude with us right now. After some interesting maneuvering, she has been resting in a bouncy chair and will wake up to give us dirty looks every now and then.

Pre-surgery

Post-surgery

NPO for Aspen, Monkey bread for me

Aspen's surgery is tomorrow. The surgery that was supposed to happen in L.A. Dominic's snip snip was one thing, but this is a 4-6 hour surgery. She is having open reduction hip surgery. Her hips are at least 1 inch out of socket on both sides, a complication of 1] no fluid for 12 weeks, 2] being smooshed in-utero. After the surgery, she is going to be in a spica cast for about 6 weeks. You can see a pic of the cast here.

Needless to say, I'm a bit unhinged. Stress has led me to consume a small (ENTIRE) monkey ball cake in the last 24 hours. In my defense, the thing is addicting. Liz made it for me since I have shot my diet to the deepest realms of hell over the last 2 weeks. But I will rebound.

Here is the recipe:

MONKEY BALL CAKE

4 (7.5 oz.) cans refrigerated Pillsbury biscuits
1 3/4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In medium bowl, mix 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Separate biscuits and cut into quarters. Toss into sugar and coat, place quarters in tube pan, adding nuts as desired throughout. Pour leftover sugar in tube pan. Melt in saucepan or microwave butter and 1 cup of sugar. Pour over biscuit quarters and bake for 45 minutes. Let stand 3 minutes and invert onto serving plate.


CAN YOU BLAME ME??? YUMMY!!!

SO... I will post when we get home from the hospital tomorrow night.

Fun in the Sun!

Today was the annual NICU picnic. The kids had a blast and it was fun seeing the one Neonatologist that was always friendly and upbeat. I behaved myself and didn't kick the other one in the cajones that didn't tell us about Ryan's broken ribs (yes, broken ribs) until Drew overheard him one day in the NICU talking about it. Then I cornered him like a trapped rat until he finally admitted he didn't know how it happened but would investigate and get right back to me. I'm still waiting. But that's a story for another time.

The trio got to hang out with their twins buddies K and P. There were alot of twins and triplets there. WE ARE INVADING THE WORLD! muhahahaha

Can I have a cupcake?

Can a kid get some sunglasses please!

Now he decides to smile!

Daddy teaching the boys to share. HAHAHA

Get me a cupcake and no one will get hurt!

Pics...take two

2 out of 3 behaved...Guess who STILL didn't...

Drew actually had to get BEHIND the curtain and hold Ryan this time because he kept crawling off the mat.

I'm not giving up ~ I will win this picture battle ~ If I have to go to EVERY studio in town.

Feelin' the luv

Strange occurrence #1.

It's 6:45, the kids just went to bed, and the doorbell rings. Who in the hell is ringing my doorbell? And it's the one at my door. I assume it's someone I know, because if you really want to take a fast train to the top of my sh!t list, not ringing the bell at my gate but just strolling in like we are long lost friends will guarantee you a ticket.

3 seemingly normal girls.

who turned out to be missionaries.

What happened to a warning! What happened to the white shirts, ties, and bikes that they used to wear around town?

At this point I have my face smooshed in a 6 inch opening in my door and tell them I have a religion. Thankfully they did not ask for specifics because I can't think that quick on my feet anymore. Finally after giving me a free Jesus voucher they leave, only to corner Liz in the driveway and ask if she needs help with the garbage.

Strange occurrence #2.

I had the kids out today, because Ryan needed shoes. His feet grew supersonically 2 sizes in 2 weeks and I have issues with barefoot babies in public. So I shoved his feet in a pair of sandals and out we headed.

Now I am used to the comments, and the stares, and the stupid questions. But to come out of nowhere and hug me is COMPLETELY OUT OF LINE. "Strange Huggy Lady" comes right up to me and hugs me. HUGS ME. Invaded my personal space and touched me.

I feel violated.

Happy Mother's Day!

I was sooo excited when the trio took a solid 2 hour nap this morning. I thought to myself "Hey, this could turn out to be a well behaved day" I praised them as I fed them their lunch (black eye pea soup, creamed corn and carrots, yuck, yuck, yuck). They were so happy!

Then I go upstairs for 1 millisecond and hear Dominic screaming. And come down to see this...

That would be sweet well behaved Ryan holding the "time out" stool over Dominic's head. I have no explanation for how this happened. His head won't fit thru the legs, so I ruled out the possibility that Dominic scooted himself under like a car mechanic.

Anyone see the Friends episode when Joey got his head stuck in the turkey? Hopefully today's incident is not a preview of poulty mishaps in my house.

2 out of 3 behaved...Guess who didn't...

We got up at the CRACK OF DAWN to feed, dress and drive to Kiddie Kandids to be the 1st in line since those bozos don't take appointments. And it's the day before Mother's Day, which apparently is a major picture-taking holiday, as I was educated by the lovely receptionist at another studio.

Dominic behaved, Aspen behaved, Ryan...well....see for yourself. And unfortunately, these are NOT his outakes. These are the "best" we could get. So we are trying the group shot next sunday.

oh no....

maybe he'll stop...

nope...there he goes...

Birthday Party Pics :)

Lots of cake!

"I look like a Copacabana girl"

Note to self- don't light the candles until they're 18

Go Dominic Go!

"Did I do good?"

"Do I have something on my face?"

Aspen was so tired she face planted right into the cake

Happy 1st Birthday!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Great Cake Debaucle

Next year, I'm baking the dang cake.

Saturday, Mom and I drove across town to pick up the flippin' gazillion dollar birthday cake and 3 "smash" cakes from some bakery that has been in business since Frank Sinatra was singing in the casinos. They were supposed to be ready at 10am.

Supposed.

I get there, wait in line because there must be something magical in their coffee because that's all that people were buying. So I finally get to the front and give them my name, and out comes the cake. Without names. Wrong.

No problem Bakery Lady tells me. They will just write everything on plastic and STICK IT on top. So I snarled at her and said fine, but I am still missing 3 cakes. She brings out 2 and one is wrong. At this point I'm ready to fling an apple turnover at her head. She takes it to the back and gets it fixed. Still missing a smash cake.

I almost bonked her in the head with some day old french bread. I have been standing in bakery from hell for 45 minutes with screwed up cakes and one that is MIA. FINALLY she brings it out and tells me she will help me to the car.

My keys are gone.

Right then and there, I rationalized breaking the car window if they were locked inside. But no, they weren't. In fact, I never even locked the door. Oh, and my cell phone is dead.

So I stood there, in the middle of the bakery, with Bakery Lady pretty sure I was going to have a breakdown and start showering the place with flour and pecan twirls when Mr. Very Old Man came in.

He had thieved my keys. Allegedly after he bought his challah bread he grabbed any set of keys within a 5 mile radius and claimed them as his own. So Bakery Lady gave me some free sticky buns and a hug and scooted me out of the store and sent me on my way.

All that, and the cakes were not even the buttercream delights they had been touted to be.