As a side. DH and DS and I adore sweet corn, but as DS once remarked at age 3 while surveying his giant breakfast of toast, yogurt, fruit, juice, and eggs, "Where's my meat, Mommy?" Though I guess by volume, sweet corn does end up being the main dish with meat on the side because they will gnaw through as much corn as they possibly can.

Some kids in my moms group got pinkeye recently and discovered all the pharmacies were out of the drops as it was going around. The pharmacist's recommended replacement was Johnson & Johnson No More Tears Shampoo. We're a pretty crunchy group, but our resident COMPLETELY natural momma was horrified at that idea and ended up suggesting I share my milk...I thought it was pretty funny and made a joke about selling black market pinkeye cures as a home business. I would totally give it to a friend but it was pretty amusing to have it brought up in front of 10 people by someone else! :)

My parents have a pretty strong disgust for tattoos. Every time I visit one of them remarks on their permanence, ugliness, danger (a good friend had major issues--but she got it somewhere random in Mexico on a whim!), "how's he ever going to get a real job", "think how it will look when her skin's saggy, shake their heads in bafflement. I used to ignore but now that I'm in my 30s I can roll my eyes slightly and mildly defend others' perspectives. They are pretty vehement in their disdain. But this? "You couldn't have done anything to hurt me more.". I can't imagine them even thinking that, let alone stewing/reflecting for three days and saying it! Take a month, lady, and think really hard. How about beating up his siblings, r*pe, doing illegal drugs, or even shoplifting or graffiti, not to mention killing someone... "He is cool and detached. He says, 'I think you need to re-examine your prejudices.'". He sounds like the mature one in this situation, unless the tattoo is not some typical thing but rather an expletive directed at mom, I suppose...

Final answer: Monday unless it becomes emergent over the weekend. There were too many pieces of equipment that weren't in place yet and it was too close to the end of the day for the doctor and us to feel confident that we'd be getting their "A" game today. The surgery is 4-5 hours without complications, so he needs staff to not being going off for the weekend to feel confident. I sure appreciate the amount of effort the surgeon put in though, running around trying to make it happen. He saw me 6-7 times today personally as he tried to make it happen! I've been very impressed with my care. Now to make up for 4 hrs of sleep last night and be awoken by food! DH and DD were driven here by DH's best friend when we thought it was a go. I saw DD briefly but seeing me without being able to nurse was too hard so she was taken out screaming :( She charmed the nurses and walked up and down the hall pushing her stroller. I feel bad for DH and his long weekend ahead!

I lost two at 12-13 weeks. Even though I didn't know gender I've privately named them with gender-neutral names that I loved. It has definitely helped me in my thoughts/prayers to have names.

I'm so sorry--that's so hard. I'll be lifting you up in prayer.

I don't have enough experience to give much input but I will say this: I used to teach middle school. Several of the 11-14 year old boys were way too "cool". It was all about R-rated movies, violent video games, mocking/avoiding schoolwork, tormenting less "mature" classmates, banking on a skateboarding career over pre-algebra instruction, telling me how lame I was, etc. Then one day I brought Zaks building toys for my 6th graders to play with for a geometry lesson. They had so much fun that I invited them to come in during lunch if they wanted to keep playing. Several of the boys did, along with a group of the "cool" 7th and 8th grade boys. After a bit of feigned disinterest, they joined right in. And to my surprise, they didn't just build--they played! Rockets zoomed across my classroom and they fought over who got the googly eyes and antennae to accessorize their robots. The alpha and beta males of the group begged me to keep their creations intact until the next day's lunch period. I was able to contain my delight and not scare them off. It was beautiful and eye-opening to see their macho masks and bravado slip away and watch them play. Once I got this glimpse, I worked at facilitating further experiences. I even shed a private tear over my most challenging student (beta boy) lighting up so innocently. So I just want to say embrace the innocence as it can be too easily replaced by false maturity!

The surgeon just surprised me with more hope for today! If they can get the OR and me prepped to start at 2:00, I'm in today after all! Thanks so much for your prayers and well wishes. This will shorten my time away from DD by a couple days if it happens so that will be awesome! DS, on the other hand, is now the 4th of 5 children and has access to a pool and an extensive GI Joe collection so it may be hard to convince him to move back home :)

I do most days! We're not actually formally schooling yet as my kids are 4 & 1, but our days go much more smoothly if I can just pull out a prepared meal when DS is hungry without interupting the baby's needs. Plus he loves the novelty of eating out of a bento-type box. This also allows us to run errands or go to activities in the morning without resorting to fast food on the way home because DD is asleep or cranky and I can't prepare food for DS quickly. I do most prep during dinner but sometimes wait until after they're in bed. I often do it for breakfast too when we're leaving the house early. If DS doesn't finish before we leave I take it along and he has another 5-15 min. in the car.

Ugh. That sucks when someone won't disengage and move on! I remember the original. I hope it's better soon!

Dr. thought they might squeeze me in today, but it's looking unlikely so we're back to Monday. Fortunately they have managed my pain awesomely and I should get to eat/drink soon. It's been 20 hours so I'm looking forward to cafeteria sludge ;) Sadly my poor baby girl is miserable without me. She slept in 20 minute bursts and screamed for me and tried to crawl to my bedroom every time she woke up. DH gets sick when he's stressed/tired so I've urged him to have my good friend take her for a few hours so he can sleep. This friend is super patient and resourceful and DD usually adores her so hopefully that will work!

Yes, so true. I'm definitely an obsessive over-thinker so having no other open is really freeing for me!

Update in 1

Thank you so much for your prayers and well wishes. I'm going to try to sleep now.

Amen! The doctor ordered an MRI "because it's 2014 and we can," not expectating to see anything significant beyond the x-ray from earlier. He was very surprised. Thanks to the small-worldness of the Internet, I've connected with a woman who had this same fairly rare surgery with the same neurosurgeon just last year, and she was in pain for 4 years before anyone ordered an MRI!

See down below Update: my symptoms have progressed quickly enough that I've been admitted and they are squeezing me in the surgery schedule on Monday. They are actually trying to make room tomorrow if possible! So I'm headed down to Big Town to stay the night in a hotel near the hospital where I'll meet with a neurosurgeon first thing tomorrow. They were able to double-book me with another new patient because though I was just diagnosed Friday, I'm in a lot of pain and my symptoms are worsening quickly. I have a tumor (98% chance it's benign) compressing my spinal cord to a frightening level; my Dr. was pretty shocked I can still walk. Basically, pretty freaky-serious surgery is imminent. I will know a lot more tomorrow. My mom is arriving tonight to help. I could use your prayers. It's beginning to sink in now and I'm scared. Though this surgery usually has good results if the whole tumor is removed, there is still serious risk. I also have other complicating disc issues. Adding to the stress, it looks like I will HAVE to wean DD due to my recovery time and the strain it would put on my body. This will be hard physically and emotionally, but at least my mom will be here to help distract her. DD is SO not ready to give it up, but I doubt I'll have a reasonable choice at this point. I know it's way more important that I am able to walk in a year than that I nurse her for another year, but it's hard because she's my sweet, darling little last baby. My momma heart hurts. Wonderfully, I have an amazing church family who have already rallied around with tangible help: a family watched both kids yesterday so I could make calls, a teen babysat all morning while I packed and DH wrapped up work stuff, a homeschooling family is taking DS for his first sleepover tonight (he's thrilled!), and we have 4! offers of places for my mom to stay so we aren't too overcrowded in our small house and she can decompress. Meals are forthcoming and I've had tons of offers for other help. Please pray for us, if you will!

The dress was the party inspiration piece. I picked it out months ago and planned around it. I removed a cheesy, poorly-made ladybug bow from it and added ladybug buttons to the flowers. My MIL added the black ribbon over the original red so it would tie in better. I made the hair bow to coordinate. MIL made the full-length polka-dot bib. Can you tell kids' party planner makes the top 5 on my list of dream jobs? :)

Praying here!

I loved Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man, Hook, and Dead Poet's Society especially. And August Rush, though he's not exactly likeable in that one. I remember a few years before Hook came out, my dad commented that if anyone ever made a movie about Peter Pan growing up, Robin Williams would be the perfect actor for that role. He got some major kid awe for calling that one. :w00t:

DD turned 1 recently. Here she is in all her chubby cheeked adorableness: She adores shoes and tries to put them on whenever she finds them around the house. She is particularly fond of these ones, to which I added ladybug buttons. I went for quick and easy on the cake and was pleased with the result. Speaking of cake, she was quite pleased to eat/smash her cake, and even more happy to play peek-a-boo with the ribbon! Daddy spent many hours designing and crafting this lovely xylophone. And energetic big brother makes every experience extremely exciting!

I gave my son dolls from an early age. Despite my efforts, he wasn't particularly interested until around age 2. A friend was telling me about how her almost-3-year-old daughter was given a toy plane by her dad after he returned from a trip. She loved it--she wrapped it in a blanket and cuddled it like a baby. That very morning my son had been pushing one of his Bitty Twins in a stroller. He was ramming it into the wall, saying, "Ouch! Ouch" repeatedly on behalf of the baby. I found this pretty hilarious. He suddently was very interested around 3.5 when I explained about his new sister on the way. Now at almost 5 he plays with his Bitty Twins quite often, and his interactions are (mostly) non-violent, though the boy doll is fond of jumping off things and doing flips. He doesn't see them as girl toys at all yet. DD is newly 1. She has been obsessed with baby dolls from the time she was just a few months old. She "begged" for her first doll at the store when she was 4.5 months old. When we walk down the doll aisle (just as we did with my son), she squeals and grins and reaches and clamors for the dolls. DS never acted like that. She already hugs them to her neck if I make crying noises on behalf of the doll. I did the same with DS at that age and he ignored me.

So we're now at night 3 of her sleeping in until 5:00 am rather than waking at 1:00 to eat! Cautiously optimistic...

Yes, that's my concern too more so than the drugs. Nursing is already painful now due to my back. I really have no idea what I will be able to tolerate post surgery at this point. It looks like my mom will come and dh has lots of leave and has a new position that will allow him to work from home! So this is good, at least. I have a friend watching my son while I go to my appointment; DH and DD will come with me. Unfortunately we're 3 hours from Los Angeles, so that makes logistics harder.

Thanks for this. I know intellectually she'll be fine, but the thought of nilursing being interuppted or cut short hurts emotionally, you know? I enjoy it, even as annoying and painful as it can be. I'm working hard at prioritizing myself, as I know that's really what everyone needs here anyway. I'm so glad she's 1; it does make this less frustrating for me. I may not really be able to wean her very gradually. It sounds like we may be talking surgery right away.

Thank you all for the help and encouragement. I'm trying not to stress/obsess especially since I don't have details yet. I think it's easier for me to think about the nursing issue than to grapple with my fear about the surgery :( I tried pumping after DD went to bed but wasn't successful so I'll try again tomorrow.