Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Waiting waiting waiting

So Monday night, we waited, my Dad and I until the surgeon came to see my Mom before going home. I believe we finally left the hospital around 9:15pm or so. He comes after he is done doing surgeries for the day. This man has been done a lot of surgery on my Mom and I had not met him prior to Monday. It becomes harder to be there when you have your own family to care for. Well I had heard lots about VLR (Dr. Van Lier Ribbink) can you see why they use initials for him? I was curious after hearing his name so often and not always in a positive way, he is a surgeon you know... Don't make me spell it out for you.

Anyway, given the amount of times he has operated and the severity of the surgery this time, I know something has changed for him. All of sudden, my Mom is now calling him by his first name and he has really humanized her. I guess you can only maintain that distance for so long.

Regardless, it was nice to meet him and have him explain in detail what his expectations were for her recovery and his concerns. And he let us know that if he didn't deliver enough detail when he came to see her and we were there that we should give him a boot to the posterior and demand more info. I assured him sweetly that I could comply with that. lol. He seemed a little surprised but then I am sure he is not used to many people agreeing to those terms.

Yesterday, Mom had a ct scan and is looking better so we wanted to hear from the horse's, err lol, VLR's mouth what he had to say about the scan. We waited until 10pm and he was a no show. We were poooppped out. I am hoping that he did end up coming by and seeing her before taking off for the day so that we do not need to wait tonight.

Anyway regardless of what he would say, it is so nice to see her willing and wanting to get up and walk around more and more independently. She is walking a little further each day and slowly getting her strength back.

Heck, she is even talking about wanting the whole family to take a cruise. I put the kabosh on it being before the baby is born. I can't even imagine wanting to be on cruise ship when I am 7 or 8 months pregnant. Besides the fear that we will be in Mexico and I will suddenly go into labor or some such.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My realization

It struck me yesterday that my life at home has gotten busier than I realized. Maggie has ballet now two days a week. She is in preschool one day a week. We usually have playgroup 1 to 2 days a week. Max is in school 5 days a week now that he turned 5. He has violin once a week and now on Fridays he is taking karate/gymnastics at school as well.

I know that it isn't actually a ton of things and they don't last for long periods except Max's schooling. It still is unbelievable that they are growing up and wanting to do more activities and be busy.

I keep calling and annoying my husband with the details of what they have going on. lol. I just want to keep them doing their things and give my mother in law a break at the same time so that she can have some time to herself. And thank goodness for my friend, Shelby, who is helping get Maggie to and from places and giving her a chance to be with her friends today and tomorrow. Who knew that a 2 yo would understand the concept of friends so well? I don't think Max did at her age. She is much more socially interactive unless the place is completely overrun with boys and then she likes to hide.

They drive me crazy but I miss them and I love hearing their voices on the phone.

PS My mom seems to be doing better and better each day. I am hoping today follows in the same vein.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Talk about falling off the wagon

January has just about gone away and I don't believe I have posted much. It seems like it has been an incredibly busy month of trying to get back into the swing of things and failing miserably. I haven't posted any holiday pictures like I wanted to but oh well.

The kids are glad to be back to school and activities. We got Maggie started at a recreation center taking a few preschool classes. Shhh don't tell anyone she is not three if they ask. My friend who watches her for me was taking her older son and Maggie and her middle son would participate sometimes and we figured we would throw them in as well. She is enjoying it so far. Then on Mondays and Saturdays, she has ballet class. I, so, did not think that she would love it as much as she does. She truly enjoys it and listens enthusiastically. Max began taking karate and gymnastics at school on Fridays and is so happy to be doing that.

Last weekend, we decided to go to all the petsmarts and look at the rescue dogs to see if we could find our new dog. We ended our quest at the aspca, where we found Juno. He is a small lab/dalmatian mix. He is a pretty boy, black with a white tuxedo front and some white on his paws. He is a little over a year old and weighs about as much as Max. The kids love him and he loves to play with them. I think we knew as soon as we saw him that he was meant for us. Now we just need to do some dog training with him. hmmmm that should be fun.

Now to the heavy stuff. My mom had surgery in the beginning of the month. It was pretty major and I guess I didn't realize how major it was until I got here on Friday. She's a survivor. She's had cancer 3 times and this time it was a little tougher because they had to take much of her pancreas. She has pretty much been in the hospital since the surgery because of infection. Before the surgery she had broken her ankle and that did not help to have that added to her recovery. Today though was a good day. Her infection seems to be slowly clearing up and the pain wasn't quite so bad. But there is still a several roads to choose from once she has made it out of the hospital. I thank God for the wonderful friends and family that she has that care for her and are here for her. And I thank God for my friends and family who have made it easier for me to be here as well so that I can help relieve a little of the burden that my Dad and Sister have in being there for long hours at the hospital. Now if I could lift a little of that burden off my Mom. I am just hoping to get her home before I have to leave so that she can get a better night's sleep and feel comfortable in her own home.

So if you have wondered where I went this is kind of the story but I am hoping that February I will get more on board again with the blog.
I got an email today from NaPo whatever about taking up the challenge of writing about wants everyday for a month. The idea of that really appealed to me because there are so many ways to talk about wants and especially how it relates to my born and unborn kids. Just so you know there is only one boy in my belly right now, not two.