Good times — sister’s visit full of eating, shopping

What a fun weekend. Lots of time hanging out with my family, eating awesome meals, and a bunch of shopping. And the weather was nice. And did I mention the shopping?

My sister Emily, who lives in Fishers — about 1 and a half hours south — came for the whole weekend, from Friday night to Monday night this past weekend. The visit was for my other sister, Sara’s, birthday and happened to be over Emily’s spring break. Emily works for the school system as a social worker, so she gets those awesome school breaks the rest of us drool over.

Anyway, Em arrived Friday night. She’s the ultimate low-maintenance guest – she said “I’ll just pick up McDonald’s on the way!” God love her. I didn’t even plan out meals or grocery shop, figuring we would do it together the next day.

So, she arrived and after visiting a while we went over to Sara’s house – right down the street. We visited with her kids for awhile. London was so happy to see her aunt Emmy and Aunt Eri. After they went to bed, we had a few beers and hung out. It was really nice. It doesn’t happen that much. Usually when we’re all together the rest of the family is around so it’s cool for the three sisters to be together. We munched on some delicious salads Sara made us – later Sara would ask 50-60 times if we liked her “impromptu” salads. She and my dad both derive great pleasure from asking the same question over and over again, and if it involves something they did well, all the better.

After awhile Sara turned on the recent Oprah show on the missing identity case that happened a few years ago near Marion, Indiana. An amazing story. It’s basically about a group of Taylor University students who were in a terrible wreck and the identities of two of them were switched afterward – leading one family to think their daughter had died, but hadn’t, and the other family to take care of a daughter who wasn’t really theirs. Crazy. The families were so neat and handled it so well.

In the morning we just hung out at my house. Emily and I loaded up on coffee as we played with Ella during the morning. I made us some grilled cheese sandwiches and veggie soup. One of our favorite meals. We went grocery shopping after Ella’s morning nap, then returned to lay around for awhile before Sara’s birthday party at Rachel’s. Sara, my mom and London stopped by to visit afer seeing High School Musical on Ice.

The party that night was very fun. Rachel made a bunch of pasta that the kids loved and I picked up awesome salads from Casa’s. And we were all so happy the weather was finally nice. The kids got to play on the swing set and Grant’s big bouncy house he got for Easter.

Afterward, another night of hanging out having a few drinks followed — at my house this time. Am I in college again? Well, not quite. We only had the energy to watch bad realty television and stay up until about 12. By the way, I really don’t care to see Danny Bonaduce ever again. His latest reality show features desperate stage moms bringing their kids to him to help make them stars. That’s just wrong on so many levels.

Sunday, was basically another day of hanging out, coffee drinking, and … Rock of Love! Yes, apparently Rock of Love is on at 11 a.m. Sundays. We people with Tivo-like recording systems have no idea when shows are on anymore. I just check my recordings everyday and hope for the best.

So, we ate our (awesome) black bean quesadillas and watched Bret Micheals continue his noble quest for his “rock of love.” It was a good episode too. They brought different family members on to reveal more about the remaining girls. We about died when Daisy’s ex-boyfriend’s sister came on. She keeps trying to claim there’s no connection anymore with him. The episode really got good when they all sat down to watch a taped concert of Brett’s. Destiny danced around like a groupie in the front row hoping for a backstage pass. It was so weird. Did you catch that her family was there? And they were all sitting in a living room watching a taped show? Thankfully she got the boot at the end. And we were really on the edges of our seats when Daisy announced that she had something else to tell Brett. Yes! Another juicy story from Daisy’s past! But it was only to tell Brett that Destiny said she didn’t “love” Brett, like she did. Oh girls. How did they know you’d make such a good show?

Later Emily and I decided we really needed to do a test shopping run in Fort Wayne. We had a trip to the outlets in Fremont planned for Monday, but we couldn’t wait. So, we hit the mall for a couple of hours. Emily is so funny shopping. She has the most dramatic reactions. She saw a necklace and bracelet she wanted and said “I’m not sure I can live without this.”

That night we had another party at my mom’s. Lately it’s become kinda common for us to take our kids and go hang out at my mom’s house on a Sunday, and eat a fabulous meal my mom’s prepared. Sara calls this the “meal plan.” It’s just like those glorious days of college, before real responsibility sank it. We’d just wonder over to the cafeteria with our meal card in hand and choose from the many different food options. Now, it’s my mom’s house. And the meal is always awesome with lots of side dishes and fresh fruit and vegetables. Love you mom.

Afterward, my dad took me, Emily, my nephew Grant, my neice London and Ella for a ride in a wagon, pulling it with his 4-wheeler. He went very slow, but I still was really nervous having Ella with me. It was so nice out though and the land is so pretty behind my parents’ house.

The next day all of us girls went shopping – me, Em, Sara, my sister-in-law Rachel and my mom. It was really fun. We really stocked up on clothes for our kids and ourselves. Sara’s kids sure got a lot of jammies. We teased her a lot about buying Finn 9 pairs of pajamas. But she said, “Well, there are 7 days in a week, people.” I bought Ella some shoes that are to die for. And of course when I showed Emily each pair she said something like “Well, are these the cutest shoes you’ve ever seen in your life or what?” Love it!

We did have somewhat of an intervention when our mom picked up some sparkly/sequence looking little loafers. Sara said it looked like she should be at a bowling alley. I thought they looked like something Micheal Jackson would wear. Sorry mom.

We had an awesome lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s too. Their salad bar is so good. I teased Sara and pointed out that they had carrots. It’s the only thing she puts on her salads.

So we had a great, great time. We hope Em comes up every year for her spring break. She did mention that maybe when our kids our older they could come stay with her over their spring break. Sara really liked the idea. She said “We should do this every year Em, until of course, that year when we send all our kids down.”

How could I resist these shoes?

Fearing the terrible twos, and threes

I’ve realized that all those things people mercilessly warn you about during pregnancy are not nearly so bad. Those people must get some sort of sick thrill out of scaring nervous pregnant women.

Example A. You will never sleep again.

We’ve had our share of getting up during the night, but really you’re on this new baby high, you’re all pumped up. Bring on the feedings! And hopefully most women get a decent maternity leave if they plan on returning to work. So, if you are sleep deprived, it’s not like you have to do rocket science, mostly it’s feed, change, rock, repeat, feed change, rock, repeat, ….

Example B. You will never go out to the movies or have fun again.

Yes, people really say this. And it’s true we go out a lot less. But, my sister said it best when she said “Whatever you really like – movies, hot baths, whatever, you can make it work. You just can’t do all the things you used to.”

So, anyway, here we are, Ella’s one and we’re just moving happily along, out of all the baby stages and really starting to have fun, but I keep hearing about those “terrible twos.” You may remember my doctor warned of backarching and tantrums in our future.

So part of me wants to believe it’s some sorta conspiracy or fear tactics used to amuse others. But I actually really trust my doctor … and I’ve seen some scary things lately.

Last week I was at Meijer’s and this woman was walking out holding her 2- or 3-year-old while he was screaming “die, die, die, die.” I heard him well into the store, while they were far away, outside. Woah. I’m glad I didn’t witness that scene while I was pregnant. I think it would have sent me into a hormonal meltdown.

Yesterday, I ran into an old friend who has three daughters. She said her 2-year-old is starting to turn mean. She said it like it was just a fact of life. Her girl has even started saying “damnit.”

My sister and sister-in-law have had some troubling experiences lately too. Rachel went on about how sweet her little boy, Grant, has been lately. She thought that his bad phase was done with. Today though, she reported things weren’t so good. He kept taking things away from a little friend the night before, and when Rachel sent him to the corner he threw a cup at her. Hard. She had a red mark on her face.

My sister Sara said her daughter turned evil at age 2. Last week she called my sister stupid at Ella’s birthday party. The scary thing is she’s 3 now. It doesn’t even end at 2?

Shoot. Well, I’m going to live in denial as long as I can. For now, my baby is really sweet and doesn’t do anything wrong. And who knows, maybe Sara was wrong with her implication recently – she saw me holding Ella and said “My baby was just like yours when she was that age.”

Can she really be bad?

Not just a pretty face – Ella’s latest tricks

Ella’s been doing a lot of new stuff lately. Here are a few of her favorite hobbies:

1. Picking up her baby doll, giving her a kiss, then rocking her in a bassinett.

2. Kissing on command. She’ll give her stuffed animals kisses when I suggest it. They’re open-mouthed. And she won’t kiss me or her daddy. We’re working on it.

3. Repeatedly saying “ball” – and she really will be looking at a ball! Then she will even proceed to play catch with you. Except her version of throwing it is to walk over and give it to you. Then you need to move away to continue the game.

4. High five. A great trick Daddy taught her. Sometimes he teaches her weird tricks. Like wiggling her tongue. But, I have to admit I love the high five.

5. Climbing. This one’s a little scary. So far it’s just onto our small, soft ottomans, but I see dangerous kitchen chair climbs in our future …

6. Dancing. She’s been doing this occassionally for awhile now. But now it’s almost guaranteed that if you have music on, or even a cell phone rings, she’ll bop to the beat. It’s so cute.

7. Carrying a basket around like a purse and filling it up with things she finds. She learned this the day AFTER easter. Shoot!

8. Lifting stuff. Even if it’s really big and awkward it’s almost like a challenge for her. She wants to see just what she can or can’t pick up. Her little people airplane, yes. Her little people barn, no.

9. Sitting on daddy’s lap. Lately she’s found a new love for daddy. She’s always loved him, but if I was around, she’d chose me. Now, she’s starting to go to him and sit in his lap a lot. He’s very happy.

10. Help in the kitchen. Well, it’s not so much help as it is making a complete mess. But today she worked so intently on opening a bag of spinach and putting it into a bowl while I got dinner around, it was so sweet.

A blood disorder, but it could be worse

Last week at Ella’s 1-year checkup I informed my doctor that my husband has a blood disorder called spherocytosis. I had always meant to mention it at other checkups, but since she was such a happy, quickly-developing, healthy-seeming baby, it just never really crossed my mind. Plus it’s just something that we rarely think about. Occasionally my husband gets really tired and sleeps all day. He also seems to get sick more often and for longer than me. For years I kinda just thought he exaggerating his condition to get out of housework. But I have talked to his family a lot about it. I’m pretty sure they don’t care about getting Steve out of housework, so I guess it’s legit.

Anyway, they said they would look for this condition when they did her labwork. What defines this condition is sphere-shaped red blood cells. Usually they are disc shaped and stronger. OK, enough medical talk. The doctor said that if she had this disorder she would personally call me, if not the nurse would.

Later that evening I get the call. It’s the nurse. Thank god. Although she says, well Ella is slightly anemic. She has low iron. And she does have some sphere shaped cells. Oh no. She does have it. My stomach sank. I really really hoped it would just skip her. The Internet said she had a 50/50 chance of getting it.

As the news sunk in I had so many questions. What does this mean? What can we do? How bad will she have it? Steve’s dad and brother also have it but have never really felt symptoms.

Just minutes after the news my in-laws arrived. They were on their way home from a visit with their other child and grandchildren and stopped to stay the night.

We discussed the news with them. Then my mother-in-law made my heart sink with this statement, “Steve almost died from mono in high school because of the blood disease.”

I didn’t sleep well that night.

Turns out Steve’s mono did cause his spleen to be enlarged. The spleen is already working harder with this condition. So, they scheduled a splenectomy. Only they made the date months in advance. Steve was in a play and had spring break, things he didn’t want to miss. By the time they went to remove his spleen it was huge. It could have easily been ruptured and caused internal bleeding.

So, I think that a. it’s a mistake to put off something like that and b. knowledge is power and now that we know Ella could have spleen or other issues we will look for them. So, I’m feeling much better about the whole thing.

And we met with a pediatric hematologist today, who was located in a cancer unit, putting things into perspective even more. There were several children there who had lost all their hair due to cancer. I can’t imagine. I was dreading this second visit to have Ella’s blood drawn, I can’t imagine watching your kid suffer through chemotherapy.

The doctor told us about the disorder – or anemia – actually. And I feel a lot better about it. And actually we don’t even know for sure if she has it. A test is being done to confirm that and we’ll know in a few weeks.

But basically if she does it will mean if she has a severe case, she may have fatigue maybe even have to have her spleen removed someday. But people do it. The doctor said sometimes it’s like a rite a passage in some families. They all get their spleen removed at age 21! But I’m optimistic that like Steve’s dad and brother, she won’t even have symptoms. She’ll also get an extra vaccine when she’s two and maybe go on folic acid.

And now for a really serious topic. Rock of Love. Did anyone see that last episode where Bret Michaels kept finding out more about Daisy? Loved it! How many more secrets can she have? So far he’s discovered she was a stripper, had an abortion and still lives with her boyfriend! She’s becoming a blubbering mess too. For some reason I like her though. Under those fake lips, fake nose and fake boobs, there’s kinda something sweet about her. I do wish he’d give Destiny the boot. That girl has a serious attitude problem. Ambre seems cool, but she always strikes me as playing dressup. She looks like a cheerleader not a rockstar groupie. Maybe I’m wrong. Previews show that in the next episode he’s going to find out she’s 37, instead of 31 like she said. Can’t wait! Don’t judge me, Internet. It’s been a tough week!