The love affair with carpet cleaners continued...

Today was yet another eventful day. Considering the hospital visit yesterday, I thought I would get an early start on preparing dinner so all I would have to do is pop it in the oven 30 minutes before we ate. I was going to be watching Molly and Aubrey and wanted to make sure that I could get dinner to the table on time and have a smooth sailing day. SO I started cooking dinner about 8:30 and had Aubrey in the kitchen because she doesn't like it when she is too far from me, so I left the gate open so the kids could come in and out while I cooked. Big Mistake :) My little Heman Zander decides that the filter we have on the back of the fridge looks interesting. So apparently he tugged on it so hard that he snapped the plastic end where the brass fittings screw on. Water went spraying EVERYWHERE!! I scooped up the kids locked them out. I had no idea how to turn the water off. So I am trying to hold my fingure over the end while calling for help. Failing miserably I was soaked. I called Dad a few times but couldn't get ahold of him; after a few tries I finally reached Jaime and he told me how to turn it off. Not before the entire kitchen and dinning room floors were flooded as well as the carpet near the 2 enterances to the kitchen. I asked Zane to bring me the towels in the bathroom for the water. He brings me one. LOL. I said it is going to take a lot more than that to clean this up. He got 5 or 6 more. When I realized towels were going to take all day, (Meanwhile dinner is burning on the stove. Luckily I salvaged that before it got too well done.) I pulled out my trusty Carpet Cleaner. This one does carpets and hard floor surfaces. A job that could have been hours only took me about 45 minutes to clean up start to finish. MAN! I love you carpet cleaner! Our relationship is growing so fond I may have to give it a name. He He!

Zane's ER Visit

Yesterday was somewhat of an eventful day. We got up in the morning and were just hanging out. My friend Aimee dropped by her 2 boys (Berkley & Aiden) for me to watch so her and Jake could have a little alone time and go for a morning hike kiddo free. The kids were all having fun and hanging out when Zane decided to go into the pantry and look for something. Next thing we know he is crying bloody murder and lying face down on the tile. Apparently he tripped over his own feet and did a header on the tile. Poor kid had a HUGE bump on his head. So once Nana and I calmed him down and made him feel better I was able to see just how big his bump was. Usually Zane bounces back pretty quickly from getting hurt. However yesterday he wasn't doing so well. Nana had to leave to go to an appointment and I was left hanging with the kids. I got them all a snack and settled in front of the TV watching a discovery underwater animal video that Berkley and Zane love. Zane took a few bites of his goldfish snacks and then said Mom I'm tired I want to go to sleep. I have always been told after a head injury not to let them sleep. So I tried to keep him interacting with me and the movie to stay awake. It wasn't working, so I decided to bribe him with going outside to play (he never passes up this opportunity). He said he wanted to and was excited, but as soon as I got his shoes on all he did was lie on the floor and close his eyes. Now I started to get nervous because it was just barely 10am and this is not my little boy I usually have to tie him down to get him to sleep. He wasn't super responsive just one word answers. He was crying for me to let him sleep. So finally I told him he could go to sleep if he stayed on the couch so I could watch him. About 10 minutes later and right before Aimee came to get her kiddos Zane started to make noises like he was going to throw up, but nothing came out. I have always heard the head injuries, nausea, vomiting, being tired is all not good. So with some wise motherly advice from my friend Aimee I decided to trust my instinct and take him to be seen. We went to Urgent Care first thinking it would be quicker. Poor Zane was so tired at this point and just kept crying, which in turn was scaring Zander and he was just trying to kiss and hug his brother, was so sweet, but hard as a mom to watch. We get back to be seen and the doctor there tells me that he is showing some signs that he may have swelling on his brain, of course the mention of those words made my soul ache. I was 2 seconds from breaking down when I remembered if I lost it Zane would only be worse. So they triaged us to a hospital so that we could have a CT scan to make sure he was ok. The whole ride to the hospital poor Zane was trying to sleep and me and Zander were just trying to keep him awake by talking to him and singing silly songs. We got to the ER safely (Thank you Heavenly Father!). We were lucky that they were not busy and we got right back. The doctor saw Zane and did a little exam and told me that he didn't think I had too much to worry about,(that calmed my nerves) but we would do a scan and to make sure all was well. We went back for that around 1pm. A sweet charge nurse was nice enough to hold Zander for me so I could be with Zane he was really scared. When we got into the room to do the scan he told Zane he had to hold still or else they would have to sedate him. Of course he had no idea what that meant, so I told him he would have to get a shot if he would not hold still and let them take the pictures. I explained that it all looks worse than it is and that it would not hurt. He was a very big boy and made me super proud and held still long enough for them to get the images that they needed. We went back to the room and met Zander again and were told we had to wait about 25 minutes for the results. Nana called when she got home and saw us gone because she was worried. She came to visit us at the hospital. About 2 minutes before Nana got there the doctor came in to talk to us. We were happy to find out that Zane had no brain swelling and he just had a minor concussion. They gave me a list of things to watch out for and sent us on our way about 2pm.
All of this really makes me remember how precious my little ones are! I love them so much; I also love to see how their love and concern for one another grows and strengthens.

Many laughs.

Yesterday I went out to visit with Nadine and Jaime stayed home with the boys. I totally appreciate his help when I need some girl time. It is very nice. However, Zane gave daddy a taste of what I deal with all week long. He he. I called Jaime on my way home to see how things went and if he needed anything of course he tells me no things are fine, but I could hear that he was a little frustrated in his voice, so I asked him what was wrong. He tells me that Zane stuffed a rock up his nose and Jaime couldn't get it out. I immediately laughed.. this didn't help the situation, but all I could picture was Mandy and her eraser incident from when we were kids and the image still makes me laugh to this day. Anyhow apparently, the rock Zane chose to put up his nose was similar to the shape of an arrow as Jaime put it. Narrow on one end and wider on the other. Of course Zane chose to put the wider end in first, so Jaime was scared he wasn't going to get it out. I didn't get all the detail, just that it was out and Zane was sitting on the couch with the threat that if he touched rocks again he was in big trouble. (LOL.. telling Zane not to touch rocks is comical since as a 3 yr old boy they are fun toys. I figured maybe we could start with something small like don't put rocks in your nose or don't put them in your mouth and nose..instead of just cold turkey..he he) We will see how long that lasts. However all worked out well; I was just happy to hear that the rock was retrieved without any trips to the hospital. To be honest, a little piece of me was happy to know that Daddy got to experience a small portion of what Mommy does on a daily basis. Gotta love the hours of entertainment that kids offer.

Thank Heaven for Carpet Cleaners!

Man!! I must say that until I had my boys I never knew how lucky we were to have the invention of the carpet cleaning machine. I think that I must thank my Heavenly Father for it about every month in one incident or another. This month, yesterday in fact, Zane decided to be super secret stealth and get up after I put him down for his afternoon nap, venture into the bathroom, and get the brand new tube of adult toothpaste and baby toothpaste and an entire thing of dental floss. He then took it back into his room and sat in the floor of his walk-in closet and painted one of his and Zander's big ride on toys and the entire floor of his closet with it. He did such a good job of it that it was about 45 minutes into his "nap" when I figure he got bored with painting with the toothpaste and wrapping the detalfloss a million times around that one toy that he figure he would get up and wrap the dental floss around everything in his room. I heard pitter patter of his little feet from downstairs and immediately went up to investigate. As soon as I got to the top step of the stairs I was overwelmed with minty freshness. I knew he was into the toothpaste, just didn't know where. After observing the dental floss all over his room I discovered his art work in the closet. He must have heard me coming because I found him hiding under his bead holding the evidence (empty tube of toothpaste and empty floss container) in his hand. Still can't find what he did with the empty tube of baby toothpaste. Who knows when or where we will find that; we were successful in locating the cap though. :) Amazingly enough Zander slept through the whole thing. (He is such a GREAT napper; I hope that never changes.)

When I asked Zane to come out of the room and talk to me he just kept saying "I am sorry mama! Really I am." We had a little bit of a chat about good choices and bad choices and how that one was not a good choice, however fun it may have seemed at the time. I asked him why he did it and this is how that conversation went.

Me: "Zane why did you do that?"
Zane: "Why did I do that?"
Me: "I don't know that is what I am asking you."
Zane: silence and a blank stare.
Me: "Zane, I don't understand why you did that when you knew it was wrong because you hid from me when you heard me. So, why did you do that?"
Zane: "Why did I do that?"
Me: "Yes, that is what I want to know."
Zane: "Why did I do that?"

This went on for a few minutes when I decided I was getting no where (he was either pretty cleaver and decided if he just keeps asking me the question right back that he wouldn't have to answer, or maybe he didn't quite understand the word why.) I wasn't sure which, so I just told him when it is something the feels he needs to hide from me that it is probably not a good idea.

Needless to say before the invention of a carpet cleaner that would have taken me hours to get all that toothpaste out. My first cleaning attempt was with a wet rag and when I realized that was a lost hope. I got out my trusty little carpet machine that we bough back when we knew it was time to tackle potty training. It took me about 15 minutes to get it all out. This machine has saved me in so many incidents. Again...I thank heaven that someone was smart enough to invent the carpet cleaner. Boy do my little guys keep life interesting!