Lots of Laurens

At the mall, I wheeled Lauren's stroller up the the three sided mirror. Suddenly, there were like, TWELVE Laurens. She didn't know what to do, she was so utterly amused.

I made cookies for our Cookiepalooza work event last Sunday. Peanut Butter Blossom cookies with peanut butter filled kisses. They were yummy, IMHO, though I only got one vote for best tasting...

then the peanut butter salmonella crisis hit... look for Peter Pan starting in 2111... hmmm, I remembered that I had just bought a new jar of Peter Pan with which to make the cookies... but I wasn't too worried, because I was pretty sure that cooking the pb would kill any lurking salmonella...

But on Friday, I checked my peanut butter just to be sure - AAAGGGH - it was Salmonella Butter.

So I really made Toss Your Cookies cookies.

Luckily, so far, I am not being sued, but my hubby, who ate alot of the cookies, declared that he thought his throat was closing up and that he "went online and he had every symptom". But then I found out he ate some of the raw batter! No wonder he got sick!

Lauren had her 1 year follow up visit at the eye doctor today. For four months after she came home, we had to go almost twice a week! She had Retinopathy of Prematurity (bad eyes?), but it started to get better.

She was an angel today, very cooperative with the doctor. He said that she had a "very good disposition". He also said that she might need glasses before she goes to school.

According to the new In Touch magazine, the Sally Jessy Raphael look is back in, so I tried out the look on her. She looks very intelligent, don't you think? If she grows up like someone else I know who wore Sally Jessy glasses when they were young (you know who you are), I'll be very happy.

Happy Birthday Lauren

Lauren's party was a big success yesterday. She had her first true taste of sugar (as in PURE SUGAR mixed with BUTTER) and, needless to say, she loved it. She was trying to shove it in with both hands!

As we opened her presents, I had LOTS of help. From 2 up to 12, every kid at that party was ready and willing to tear into those gifts, even if what they opened were tiny little girl clothes. As they opened what was essentially an entire wardrobe that Lauren's Grandma got her, they squealed, "they're so tiny - they look like Build-a-Bear clothes!"

---

So to continue the saga of what was happening a year ago... Sunday Morning, I was still on the Labor & Delivery floor, recovering from the night before, mostly calm and sleeping. At 9am, a nurse rushed in and said, "roll over, the baby doesn't like that side". Apparently Lauren's heart beat had dropped and wasn't coming back up... then more nurses... I was bleeding too. Then a swarm of doctors and nurses... time for an emergency c-section. I was in a bit of shock. I looked over at Chuck and said, "I love you Honey", as they wheeled me away.

They had me out cold and had the baby out within about 20 minutes. Lauren was born with an APGAR score of 1 and a collapsed lung. They performed miracles and got her stable. She needed lots of blood and had to go on a respirator. She was 2lbs 2oz. She would spend the next 7 weeks in NICU.

As for me, I would end up having additional 3 hours of surgery. The placenta was attached too deeply to the uterus (placenta accreta) and I was losing a lot of blood. The doctor had been at Church, got paged, and arrived just in time to put a ton of stiches in and prevent the need for a hysterectomy. I got 7 units of blood that day. I think he brought some extra help from Church.

Those several hours were easier on me than they were on Chuck. He saw his tiny, frail baby - a bit deformed from being smooshed in utero without fluid for 5 weeks - being wheeled by to NICU... and had to keep signing consent forms for my surgeries and blood transfusions... and, for a time, I'm sure he thought he might lose both of us. Jenny came to the hospital and really held it together for Chuck. Later, at home, not so much... but she was strong for us when we needed her most.

I remained unconscious until about 9pm that night, when I woke up with a breathing tube in my throat, unsure of what had happened. Chuck told me the baby was doing ok, so I was relieved. He didn't give me a true picture of her situation, knowing that there was nothing I could do and worrying wouldn't help her or me.

But, as you can tell from the beautiful picture above, Lauren improved. I had a couple set backs with blood clots and a near mental breakdown, but I got better too. And through it all, Chuck was a saint, taking such good care of me and Lauren.

And all this struggle was worth it. Slowly, the stress diminshed to the normal level that every parent has over a child... the fun is now growing each day as she does new things, starts to talk, and forms her personality.

We will never forget the difficult start, but we pray that the good times will far outweigh the bad.

A year ago today, I was in the hospital, 29 weeks pregnant. After 4 weeks on bedrest at home, my water had broke Christmas night, and I had laid in the hospital for 5 weeks in a constant state of worry that I'd miss signals from my body that things were going awry. They kept telling me, "oh, YOU'LL KNOW"... but on that day last year, I didn't REALLY know, I just felt a little off and wasn't feeling the baby move much. Sure enough, when they put me on the monitor, I was having contractions... and with each contraction, a big dip in Lauren's heartrate ( a decel, as they call them). They moved me over to the Labor and Delivery floor, where they monitor you constantly. Chuck and I watched the monitor for hours, focusing on the number for Lauren's heart rate, anxious to see it go back up after each contraction. The contractions got further and further apart. They almost sent me back to my room, but decided to wait until morning... thank GOD they waited. If I hadn't been being monitored, Lauren would not be here today.

While Lauren was playing with the newspaper (yes, I was letting her wreck the place), I noticed that she kept leaning over. Then I spotted the pic of President Bush and realized she was kissing his picture! She continued to do it over and over again. It was hilarious. I grabbed my camera, figuring it would be, at the very least, interesting as part of future history.

I'm not sure what drew her to it, I haven't seen her do this to a picture before... regardless, I opted to have a bipartisan response and find it adorable.

Brave or Stupid?

And now for my next family story... about my older brother who lives in Vegas...

He was coming out of a grocery store a little after midnight one night last week... he noticed a seedy looking guy, so he was wary as he walked up to his truck... sure enough, the guy ran up to him, pulled a gun and demanded money.

Here's where a normal person would have handed over their wallet. My brother is not normal.

So he grabs the guys arm (the one holding the gun) and "swoops" the guy - body slamming him to the ground. The guy got up and ran away, but before he got too far, he turned around and pointed the gun and my brother and mouthed "pop"... as if to tell my brother that he could blow him away but is choosing not to...

My brother ran in to the store, told them to call the police and about the tempted robbery, only to find out 2 other people had been robbed earlier that week. The police arrived quickly but couldn't find the guy. So my brother's been trying to get the market to step up security and catch the low life.

DRAMA.

Crazy Aunt

Have I ever mentioned that I have a crazy Aunt? I think she was normal at one point in life (if you call taking the doll clothes my Mom had stolen from the five and dime and sneaking them back into the store normal), but then she got in a very bad car accident, almost died, and had to learn to walk and talk all over again. Since then, she has been a little off, in the I-bought-you-a-singing-stuffed-rose kind of way.

So the other night, in the middle of the night, 3am-ish, she went to Wegmans to buy hot dogs for the next day. When she got home, she found that she could not get her coat unzipped. This I can relate to - I have a puffy coat and a puffy vest from the Gap that have gotten stuck before. Once Jenny & Aaron had to fight with my pocket zipper - of which my cell phone was trapped - for over a half hour before my phone was freed. I haven't zipped the pocket since...

so anyway, it was 3:30am and Aunt Del was stuck in her coat. A normal person might decide to sleep in the coat and deal with it in the morning, but not a Crazy Aunt. Crazy Aunt heads out to the nearest police station for help. She couldn't find a doorbell at the police station, so she went to the fire station. They had a doorbell. She rang it (remember, it's about 4am now). A fireman opened the door and she said, "I can't get my coat unzipped".

I'm sure this fireman was thinking one of two things... a) this lady is crazy or b) this lady has been watching too much late night cable and is trying to get lucky. Either way, I'm sure he was worried. So he woke up his partner and another Firefighter showed up, bleary eyed and sleepy.

Together, they tried to unzip her coat, but couldn't get it. They pulled out the heavy artilery (pliers) and freed my Aunt from the confines of her puffy coat... and sent her on her way.

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Am I terrible or what. Just seems like no time to blog. Or nothing exciting to blog about. But this weekend was good. Went to Vegas to visit dysfunctional brothers, who were actually mostly normal for the few days I was there, and to hang with Jenny.

We went a little crazy and even played some QUARTER slots ;-) My personal faves are the nickel video poker machines, five bucks can last over a half hour. That's alot more fun than dropping 20 bucks in the span of, oh, about 3 minutes. That's when I get a sick feeling in my stomach and walk around angry for the next hour. But $5 for half an hour of poker... it's worth the money in entertainment value. I actually hit four Aces twice on this trip, won about $40, not a windfall, but better than losing. I then popped some of my winnings into the Megamillion machine ($3 a spin) to try to win $11 million... but as I'm sure you can guess, no such luck.

Little L had her 1 year follow up at the NICU today. I can't believe it's been a year since the ordeal! The first couple months were very rough, but the little one is doing so well now and is so much fun. She tested very well today and is not developmentally delayed for her adjusted age (9 mos). Whew. We got lucky (and blessed) with this baby, in many ways.

They say she should be talking soon. I'm sure that will be fun too, until the day she says, "I HATE YOU MOMMY". Though honestly, I never even had an INKLING to say that to my Mom and I don't think Lauren will say it to me. Though I am going to be much more strict than my Mom, who was letting me drive her Dodge Charger 2.2 around without a license when I was 15!

Grinchy

Ok, I know I'm feeling Grinchy today but for some reason, after many many years of watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, today I just could not suspend my disbelief.

It was all fine, until Rudolph returned to Christmas Town, found out his parents and Clarice had been gone for months looking for him... then seems to know exactly where to look for them... and within no time, finds them in the clutches of the Bumble, about to be eaten.

OK, they've been gone for MONTHS but Rudolph HAPPENS to find them JUST at their moment of PERIL. And if that's not stretching it enough... Yukon Cornelius and Hermie also HAPPEN to arrive at Bumble's cave JUST at Rudolph's moment of PERIL to save everyone.

And I'm sorry, but given Bumble's SIZE differential, I think they'd STILL be afraid of him, teeth or no teeth. I'm sure he could still GUM them into little pieces should he so desire. I've seen my grandmother eat without her teeth and she still manages to put away chicken wings.

... And then there's Santa's 50 pound weight gain in 1 day. OK, I've had my pigout days, but with 3300 calories needed per pound, that's definitely impossible.

... but I do love the "Charlie in the Box"... and that they save the misfit toys... and King Moonrazer is so kindhearted and handsome...

ok, I can't do it. I can't be grinchy about Rudolph. I LOVE Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

Attack of the 50 Foot Baby

Girlie is crawling like crazy, especially to get things she shouldn't have (like the camera).

She also loves to pull herself up to standing and will crawl over to us for a boost.

NPR had a great story about music for kids (not your typical heads, shoulders, knees & toes type songs).

They played the Wee Hairy Beasties, a group of former punk rockers. They have a song about Tiny the Newt... it's a 13 second song.. and I've had this funny line stuck in my head for days:

"I got a newt named Tiny, he's Tiny 'cause he's my newt"

heh heh, my newt - minute... heh heh.

Gotta get it for Little L.

Crazy Jumperoo Kid

Lauren in her jumperoo, aka, pooperoo - as it gets things moving...

Trying my first YouTube video blog... Lauren fake giggling...



PS... finally uploaded some more pics

I know everyone's probably in crazy shopping mode - except for you few nuts who are done with your holiday shopping - so I thought I'd post again one of my favorite sites for finding deals and coupon codes - Style For Free.

PS - let me rant that those Black Friday early bird specials really piss me off. It's so unfair to us night owls. For once I'd like to see a store have a ridiculously good sale from 11pm to 3am ONLY!! I'd so be there!

Bad Blogger

Girlie is doing great. Crawling. Babbling. Tipping the scales at 16.5 pounds!

I will do my best to keep this blog up to date!

Jenny found it very amusing that this turbo tortoise was named Tina.

It's not the first time. When I was taking an Macromedia Director class at RIT, there was an entire semester where "Tina the Turtle" was in a new sample program each week.

Kazakhs are Cute

When in Toronto, we watched the Borat movie. It was so wrong, but hilarious. It didn't really need to be about a real country, most people seeing the movie probably don't even realize that it is... but that doesn't stop the Kazakhs from getting ticked...

Today I caught a bit of an NPR story about how the country is responding to the movie... part of which included Ten Borat "Facts" that embassy spokesman Roman Vassilenko is disputing... my favorite being this one:

Borat says: The traditional Kazakh beverage is fermented horse urine.
Vassilenko says: The traditional Kazakh beverage is fermented horse milk.

OK, I'm not sure they should have responded to that because any kind of fermented milk just sounds gross.

Oh, and Vassilenko is pretty damn cute, so just having his picture up on NPR should be a boost for Kazakhstan PR.

I'm having trouble deciding what to dress Littl L up as for her first Halloween. This is a big decision. You can't go back.

I think I'm partial to the lobster costume, though I'm not sure why... but I also like this very cute shark costume... "Knock, Knock. Who is it? Candygram".

I think we will get her a guitar, then the lobster costume and call her "ROCK LOBSTER!"

Squidsoap

This Squidsoap is ingenious... not only is it a really cute soap dispenser, but it puts a little ink mark on the kids hand when they press it... the ink mark washes off after about 10-15 seconds, so the grubby little germballs wash their hands well enough.

I'm going to get one for my grubby little germball niece, Mya! And when my own little germball is older, you can believe she will be getting inked.