have a large day

instead of saying conventional things like "have a nice day," or "have a good day," my grandfather (pop-pop) would always say "have a large day." yeah, i come from good stock. and i am writing this blog because i have just had myself a rather large day. here are the details:

of course there was the usual, taking care of the baby (which involves trach-care, g-tube care, getting dressed, love, chest PT, equipment checks, emails to nursing agencies, formula mixing, love, emails to medical equipment supply companies, love, love, love, cold washcloths for his tooth that's coming through, love, walks through the neighborhood, bouncing, flying, love, bottle-feeding, tube-feeding, spoon-feeding, love, love, reading books, talking, joking, love, jumping, bath, more trach care, more g-tube care, changing trach-ties, love, changing into pee-jays,  more chest PT, love, medications all day long, talking to the home-health nurse, love, and i'm sure there's more that i'm leaving out but that's a pretty good depiction.

and then there was that dinner i cooked: chicken burritos. yum. i'm about to go make myself another one just because i brought up the subject. enough said.

board game. this was brought on inconspicuously by me and aaron laying on the couch, bored for maybe one minute. so i looked at him and said "wanna play a game?" so we ended up playing apples to apples. it is the kind of game where more is merrier, so we invited billy and rowan to play along. since it is a card game where you essentially pick a card, we just held the choices up in front of the baby and he got his chance to make a choice. he did that by either smiling at a card, trying to grab a card, or headbutting a card. he was a good little player and actually ended up WINNING the game! yay rowan! mommy couldn't be more proud :)

curling my hair. yeah you heard it first. i actually spent time on my looks. i am moving up in the world. rowan helped me put my hair in curlers and i must say it looks GOOD.

about ten tons of laundry.

kalhua. mi-mi (pop-pop's wife)'s recipe. passed down the generations to little old me. i made 24 pints this evening which are currently sitting in darkness for one month until they can be brought out and given away as christmas presents and consumed in people's living rooms as white russians. i have made kahlua for the past 5 or 7 years (not sure) save last year (due to the bedrest issue) according to mi-mi's recipe so that in itself is big for me.

pumped 6-7 times. also good.

watched the steeler's game. or at least payed a small amount of attention to the steeler's game while making kahlua in the kitchen.

listened to a "this american life" episode about penn state. i'm not penn state alumni or even a fan, but it made me shed a few tears.

i haven't really sat down and rested or reflected on my day until right now. i haven't had a chance. so i think that qualifies as a large day. maybe humongous, but i'm not trying to brag. we'll just call it large and leave it at that.

here's to hoping tomorrow's just as big :)

so thankful

i wanted to write a big long thankfulness blog for today, with lots of heartwarming pictures. but, my SD card on my camera is acting up, and it won't let me upload anything. and i can't remember all the happy crappy thankfulness stuff i was going to write about before. and maybe it was meant to be, because the truth is, this is not an easy time for my family. we are extremely limited in what we can do. some of the people i love are sick. i wasn't able to go to my aunt's thanksgiving dinner like i normally would. but i did make a rockin' turkey dinner for me and billy and aaron, and rowan got to eat his first jar of baby-food turkey dinner. i got to see my dad and my sister, who are both doing well. and considering last year on this day i woke up 21 weeks pregnant in a pool of my own blood, on my 6th week of bedrest, just praying like hell to make it to 24 weeks (babies born before that gestational age are usually not resuscitated), it's pretty easy for me to say i'm thankful. i'm thankful for my ability to get out of bed and make dinner. i'm thankful to be able to clean my own house. i'm thankful to be able to walk my dog. i'm thankful for my family. and i'm so thankful for my sweet baby boy. happy thanksgiving. love, erin

thank you thank you thank you

i am feeling very thankful for so many things right now. one being this:

the little graham-cracker-crust bits are just to DIE for! i am also grateful for my amazing ability to stop eating it before the whole pint is gone.

i am thankful to have a job to go back to tomorrow, even though i'm not altogether happy to be going back to it...

What would Nurse Ratched do?

 (i am also a nurse, for all of you folks out there in internet-land who don't know that yet).

i am thankful to have had a 6 week maternity leave after already having been out of work for so long on bedrest and post c-section/NICU days.

i am thankful that we have a good night-nurse this evening, so i can sleep easy.

i am thankful rowan got to go for a walk today, and have his bath out on the back porch amid the fireflies.

and most of all, i am thankful this sweet baby is home with his family where he belongs, laying in his crib and making squeaky-noises while he sleeps. good night, little guy. i'll see you in the morning!