The Emergency Room

I knew it would come, I just hoped that it not be so soon. On Saturday, Jack came down with what turned out to be a bad cold, but had the symptoms of congestion coming out of the eyes, 103 degree temperatures, a broken blood vessel in the eye and horrendous cold symptoms and then, for added effect, went lethargic on us around 6 pm on a Saturday. Repeated calls to an idiot stand-in pediatrician (who did turn out to be right) provided no assurance (he insisted it was a cold), so we called our new friend and new doctor as it turns out, who advised a visit to urgent care at Children's. With a sitter on the way because we had planned to go out on Saturday, we waited for her to stay with the girls and over to St. Louis we went.

The urgent care center at Children's was closed, so all patients were referred to the emergency room, where there was a 4 1/2 hour wait. Not to mention that it was a study in utter chaos, picture 100 kids on 100 parental laps, all coughing, sneezing or holding a basin in front of them. It looked like the sick room in pre-war Ellis Island. Not people able to wait 4 1/2 hours, we were referred to Missouri Baptist (another 30 minutes away) or Cardinal Glennon, the smaller children's hospital in town and about 10 minutes away. (Did you know that emergency rooms aren't allowed to give out wait times? I get why, but how about a ballpark? Awful). Anyway, the person answering at CG said that things were moving pretty well and she was right. We made it into triage about 15 minutes after arrival, assisted by the fact that Jack's eyes were now encrusted shut and swollen. With 103.5 temperature, we had a high dose of Tylenol and a popsicle tout suite! The staff were fabulous and fast, I am an official fan. A chest x-ray and evaluations by two doctors and we were on our way, with a sheet on dealing with upper respiratory viruses at home. (Wash hands, take Tylenol, wait for it to run its course. Overachievers will include saline nose drops and a humidifier.) As for the eyes, apparently a cold can spread to the eyes, hence the congestion (it's not pink eye) and he coughed so hard, he burst a blood vessel in his upper eye, which is giving him the Dracula effect. So, that was Saturday.

Sunday we split the family and J stayed in the basement with the twinnies and stayed upstairs with Jack and watched Dora the Explorer. I hate Dora. We had a brief sojourn into Handy Manny, who is more tolerable, but in our illness, we reverted back to Dora. She's apparently like comfort food.

So, now we are waiting for the virus to spread through the family unit. I believe that all of these illnesses are coming from Jack's Mother's Day Out program, which I think he has to quit. With such little twins at home, we just can't go through this every other week. Well, I just can't go through this every other week. He starts preschool in the fall, which will have the same effect, but the twins will be 8 months old by then and a little stronger. All a little depressed around here, but this too shall pass. At least I am at home to weather these storms with the kids. No pictures this week as I can't find my camera AND our main computer's hard drive crashed, so I have to reload the camera software, etc.

Family Fun at Easter

In the management of a 2 year old boy, my only hope is to tire him out and change activities about every 20 minutes. The first picture is the result of my stretching an activity past that time. There are no words. Ok, maybe two words....blue ears. Sigh. I wouldn't change a thing, though. He is making me more joyful, which is hard to do!

The rest of the pictures....the twinnies in their pack n play, a recent addition to the kitchen. We hosted the 3rd Easter Egg Hunt of the year at our house. Jack. Elizabeth and Noelle embark on the back yard. Aunt Jerri and Laurie look for the White family tradition of the coveted Black easter egg, which contains big money. Elizabeth found it this year, $20 bounty! Aunt Emmy holds Caroline in her Easter dress and Nana holds Brooke as she is admired by her cousins. The twins and the rest of the family had terrible colds, so the Easter dresses were a bust. At some point we'll have to dress them again and get them to smile but there was much wailing on the actual Easter Sunday, so we were unable to get them posed.

I embrace week 3 as a freelancer......I may not be cut out for this, I am nervous about work each minute of each day as I hunt for clients. AND I am considering a franchise opportunity as well, which is a crazy good idea, but scary nonetheless. I am trying to steel myself for bigger ideas!!

The Hunt of an Egg

With Easter fast approaching, it's been a week full of egg hunts, parades and family visits. With the start of school, Jack picked up a terrible cold, which he then passed onto Brooke and me. On Monday, he had a 102 temperature and was terribly congested. We all seem to be letting the cold move through, part of life, but not fun.

This is week No. 1 of officially being a stay-at-home mom trying to start a business. After many, many years of being completely busy with work, I am now completely busy with babies. It's a good change, but it does make me a little nervous. I'm thrilled to have the time to stay home and give the family and my consulting business a try, but I hope I have the stomach for it. It all makes me a bit nervous.

We are so lucky to have Emily and Nana visiting for Easter. They both arrived on Thursday and their visits are way too shortlived. Feeding the twins only takes a 1/2 hour with two feeders compared to an hour on my own. Such a time saver!

In the pictures, Jack is cuddled by the Easter Bunny at the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Our good friend Kristen arranged it and did a great job.

Brookie enjoys the back deck with Jack.
The next picture is of Jack and his second cousins, Noelle and Elizabeth at Noelle and Jack's preschool egg hunt. Jack and Caroline hang out together, the twins rock with Aunt Emmy and Caroline smiles for the camera while enjoying a little fresh air.

First Day at School

J and I took Jack for his first day of school today. It was exciting, but a little sad as well. As J said as we drove away, "It's the end of an era." And it is. Our little boy is off in the real world of nursery school. He is in Miss J's class and he has 8 classmates. They all get a comment sheet on their day...."How did I feel today?" "How was my behavior?" "How much did I eat?" and "Did I rest?" Jack got a "happy and content," "played well with peers, listened to teachers and kept hands and feet to self," "ate most of his food," and "rested, no nap." He did cry when we left, but went back to playing within a few minutes. J's secretary said that the real test will be his reaction when we take him back the next time. Miss J said when I picked him up, "I have never heard a 2 year old talk so much. He just talked to us all day." Well, he comes from a LOONG line of chatters and advocates of one kind or another, it's inevitable. All in all, a big success.

Next week I am setting up my website and it will be the last week that we have our nanny on a full time basis. I'm actually really happy about it. I'll have her come two days so that I can work on my consulting business, but I feel very good about taking over the primary care of the children. She's a great nanny and we've been really lucky to have her, but I am really excited to have this time with the kids and to spend some time doing things my way. The corporate world is great and afforded us many, many luxuries, but this limited step away from it is really feeling ok these days. It's certainly not forever and I will go back if my business doesn't work out, but it's good to get some distance.

The twins are doing really well. Brooke had a rough day and cried a lot, I didn't get a good picture of her. Caroline is always grumpy around 5 p.m., I think she might have a little colic that kicks in around that time of day. It's certainly nothing terrible like the three hours of crying other babies have, but she does get really upset everyday around 5. Sigh. I brought a swing from downstairs up today, it at least got her to stop screaming.

In the pictures, Jack and his backpack and in the welcome area of his school. (They start the day in the gym with lots of scooters and cars.) Jack feeding our dog with nine lives Cheetos on the deck while I was cooking dinner (ah.....silence is never a good sign.) And Caroline in her swing.

Mini-Mes

Thought I'd offer a compare and contrast.....Jack is in the "Single" shirt, Brooke is the sad Carmen Miranda. Jack is about 4 months old in his picture....the twins are will be 4 months old in a couple of weeks. Jackie and Brooke look so much alike!

In the Easter picture, Brooke is on the left. We tried, without success, to get a picture with all of them together. Well, we got a few, but Jack is dashing out of most of them or one of the girls is screaming. I don't know how we'll ever get a family portrait!

Well, I gave my notice at work. They were very understanding and the like, told me I can come back, stay in touch, etc. So, it went as well as could be expected. Wish that I could work part time, but so be it. I simply do not feel comfortable leaving the twins and Jack with one person and orchestrating a host of people to come in......it just didn't feel right. So, I am now in charge and will be at home with the kiddies for most of the week. I am working on developing my consulting business and it looks like I am going to sign a client this week. So, I am going to work from my home office on Thursdays and Fridays, with some Wednesdays in Springfield when necessary. All in all, though, I think this plan is going to work out ok.

This is a big week as Jack is going to nursery school for the first time this Tuesday. He'll go from 9:30 to 2 on Tuesdays through July. He is very proud of his Elmo backpack and school supplies. We still need to get him a nap mat, apparently these are available at Penneys. How I detest the mall.

Will let you know how school goes!

Get Busy

In the span of a couple of days two different people said to me, "At the end of the day, you have to either get busy living or get busy dying." My long time mentor and most admired career woman told me she regretted not having spent more time with her family and that she likes having the time to work out. I got a lobbying contract referral and two other leads. A friend and former colleague said to learn from him and know that putting one's time 'in' is not always the path to happiness nor success. I guess if I'm looking for a sign, I got a few.

(I don't know why I'm so skeptical.....when I was contemplating getting a divorce that any casual observer could see was a NECESSITY, a chatty marriage counselor sat down next to me on an airplane from Louisville to St. Louis and talked to me about my situation. I never, ever talk to anyone on a plane, even in an emergency landing. Then he followed up by mailing me books to support my decision. And there are still people who don't believe there is a God.)

I am seriously contemplating quitting my job in favor of more time with the kiddies and to give being a lobbyist consultant a try. If I could make the contract lobbying gig work, I set my own hours, it's pretty lucrative and I would work hard January though May, but have the rest of the year to be in charge of carpooling, etc. But on the other hand.....do people do this? Ahhhh.....the risk gene not hardy here. Nonetheless, the worst thing to happen is in January if I have no clients and no prospects, I find another job. I can't fathom going back to my old position, with my old boss, all the old issues and problems, plus now the added guilt of two more babies left behind. But I would miss my friends, salary, benefits and sense of purpose. Hard choices. I'm 80/20 there, have to check out J's medical insurance, etc.

All good friends know that I have struggled with these career issues in a self indulgent way for years, so I will try and not bore you with additional nonsense.

The babies are doing so well. They are really little butterballs now and always want to be held. Brooke appears to be the calmer one these days; Caroline likes things a certain way, hers. In the pictures above, Jack plays at Monkey Joes and in his play room. He is a streaker and will strip down to his diaper whenever the opportunity presents itself. We're trying to ignore it, as parenting books believe that shaming for stripping behavior will marr their body sense for life. Jack reads "Five Little Monkeys" and Caroline gives us a smile.

Caroline's godmother and our dear friend Carolle is a cartoon....www.mslivingwell.org to view it and learn more about MS.

Three weeks to go......

Great panic ensued this week as I grappled with the reality that I am scheduled to go back to work on April 1. I really do not want to go, but the financial realities are such that I should. And the struggles of the work-life balance continue. Luckily, I do have people at work actually building me a flex/part time schedule or at least attempting to, which is unheard of in my world. I am a pioneer for even suggesting such a thing as part time, but I do hope that it comes to pass. So far as childcare, we are having our current nanny take on our twins and hiring help for Jack and Andrew for two days of the week. Andrew is Jack's buddy and our nanny's son, they have been raised together.....Jack was 6 months old when Susan came to work with us and Andrew was 5 months old. So, they are fast friends and mischief makers, as you may imagine. The situation has actually been a good one for Jack, he gets the benefit of having an at-home nanny, but also has socialization built in. I feel better that Susan is going to stay with us and that even with part time help coming to assist with the boys, we'll have some consistency. I conducted interviews today and I think we have at least one prospect.

Nana is visiting from Florida. We all went to dinner tonight with her and on the way home, Jack said, "Nana. I love her." The kid is too cute. J and his dad had a very good week as they won a huge case, a client of theirs under a mountain of fire from the US Attorney's office actually walked when he was facing a 30 year prison sentence. Caroline and Brookie continue their cuteness. They are really starting to coo and talk to us now. In the pictures, Jack and Andrew hang out and watch "Diego," Jack studies a seed packet (we are attempting to nurture some carrot, radish and zinnia seedlings), Caroline smiles and the twinnies nap together, or at least Brooke does.