Elevator Fun

I've got about 500 million things to blog about, but not too much time. However, I have to pass this one along. Today I took my four boys with me to the dr.'s office so they could draw some of my blood for a thyroid test. When we got into the elevator, they enlightened me to a new, fun game. As soon as the elevator doors slid shut, Ross and Mark immediately started screaming and rolling around on the elevator floor. As there was no one else in the thing with us, I started cracking up. It was great fun. They did a repeat performance on the way back to the van. Ross told me that they had done this in the hospital elevators on the way to my room a few weeks ago. When we got back to my parents house later, I told my mom about this fun activity. I was under the assumption that this was inspired by my brother, Trent. However, to my surprise, my mom said that it was my father who started this madness!!! Can you believe it?! Yes, my father is the original Sever nut, but it's been so long since I've seen much of that side of him. I'd almost forgotten that it existed. Too funny!

This leads me to ask: What other fun things could you do in an elevator? Preferably a crowded one. When I was in college, there was a group of us music students who all had to take the same German class. Since the German class took place across the campus from the music building, we would all walk over in a big herd. On the way, we had to take an elevator. These were particularly OLD elevators, and they frankly scared me. To make it even worse, we would all cram in the elevator and jump simultaneously, every time. So, what could you do in a crowded elevator for fun? Have a coughing fit. Scratch like crazy... develop some sort of a twitch... talk to the invisible man next to you, maybe ask him if he smells smoke... Isn't there a Monty Python sketch about this? I'll have to look it up one of these days. An elevator would be a fun place to play terrets! You could rock back and forth, nervously muttering to yourself about bombs. Well, I've got to run. More later.

So There, John!

Yes, it's true, I have a ginormous crush on Edna (aka Michael Ball)! (Yes, that picture is of him.)

John is a Pants Peer, and So are You!

Pre-Dawn Goofiness

Since the arrival of Clayton, (and with school being out) our bedtime routine has been somewhat buggered up. Justice has been allowed to sleep in Ross and Mark's bedroom, and on the couch many a time lately. In fact he's slept out of his own room more often than in lately. Last night, I decided it was high time to get back to some normalcy. I read him a story and tucked him into his own bed. All went well, he took his glow worm and a truck to bed with him. When he was picking out the truck from his toy box, he pointed out that there was a car from Mark's room in his box. So, after a kiss good night, I shut the door, and went downstairs. A minute later, I heard Justice calling "Go downstairs...Go downstairs!!" I felt a pang of sympathy, the poor boy has had his world changed, and he's gotten out of the habit of sleeping by himself, in his room. I went upstairs with the intention to snuggle with him for a little while. He met me at his door, handed me Mark's car, said "Goes downstairs!" shut the door in my face, and called out "Love you Mommy!" My little boy has inherited a bit of my OCD, I'm afraid. He didn't want to be comforted, he just wanted to make sure Mark's car was put away properly.

I expect Clayton, to keep me up a bit during the night, but last night Justice joined in the fun. Between the two of them, I didn't sleep at all from about 3:30 to almost 6:00 am. Justice woke up just after Clayton's 3:30 feeding, around 4:00. He came into my room with something that I swear was glowing faintly. It turned out to be a hard boiled egg. He was eating it shell and all. Do hard boiled eggs glow? I certainly would call you crazy if you said so, but I swear, the thing was glowing slightly. Weird. Maybe it was just reflecting moonlight or something. Weird, weird, weird. I'm going to have to take an egg into a dark closet to see if it glows now. I took Justice into the living room and tried to coax him into sleep by laying down with him. It didn't work, he mainly rolled around and booty bounced on my head for an hour or so, until Clayton woke up and wanted me again. Then Justice got up and went into the kitchen for a drink of water. I could hear him messing around in there the whole time I was feeding Clayton. I figured he was in there eating the chocolate cake that was sitting on the counter top. I was prepared to walk in there and clean up chocolate frosting from off of everything. I was therefore surprised to find him dry-wall mudding. He had somehow managed to get the lid off of the mud, and he went to work. He actually didn't do a horrible job either. He got out all of the right tools for the job, and kept the mud on all of the appropriate walls. He saved the chocolate cake mess for later on in the morning. Funny boy.

Caught Red Handed

Another Thing That I'm Not Sure That I Should Allow My Children To Do

Fun With a Fan!

Okay, only dorks forget that you can't hold the camera sideways when you are doing video.

Crying in the Macaroni and Cheese

I remember, during the last day or so of my pregnancy, thinking "I'm sure that the day will come when I will feel somewhat melancholy about never being pregnant again, but right now I have to admit that it's nothing but sheer relief.

Well, the melancholy came a bit sooner than I had expected. It was partly post-partum hormonal crud, I'm sure. I was making macaroni and cheese for my other children for lunch, and it just hit me that this is the beginning of the end. "I will never again have another 4 day old." I thought. "I'll blink, and then I'll be an empty nester." Tears.

I do think that I am fortunate to realize that these are the happiest days I will ever know, probably. I am grateful for these little reminders not to waste this precious time with them. That little speech from the movie Hook haunts me: " We have a few special years with our children, when they're the ones that want us around. After that you're going to be running after them for a bit of attention. It's so fast Peter. Just a few years, and it's over. And you are not being careful. And you are missing it. "

Anyway, we all have our moments of melancholy, forgive me for waxing sentimental.

Introducing Clayton "The Latest Model"

Our newest family photo (me sporting the attractive hospital gown)
Ross and Clayton
Great-grandma & baby


Dad, Justice and Clayton
Lydia, Mark and Clayton
Mark & C.
Grandma S., Justice and C.
Me and my children And here's a picture that I'm just posting, because I think it's funny. Lydia in her fancy Sunday dress, with a bike helmet, jumping on a pogo stick.

Now, if you want to see the good photos, you'll have to visit my dear friend Amy.

Quick Update

So, yes I have a wonderful new baby boy named Clayton Thomas Harlan. He and I are both doing well. We had a couple of rough days with him having tummy troubles and me having to get a blood patch. (I leaked spinal fluid when they did my epidural, this gives you the worst kind of headache that you've ever had in your life. Solution: another needle in your back, just like the epidural only they take blood from your arm and inject it into your back.) That left me with a terrible backache, and the veins in my legs freaking out. That only lasted one day though, I hear the spinal headache can last for like a week untreated. Anyway, that's all over, an I feel pretty darn good. Baby is a happy baby who now sleeps pretty well at night. Word to anyone who has a colicky baby. Take them to a good chiropractor who specializes in children!! It sounds hoaky, but it works!!! I won't go into why it works here, but trust me it does. Our chiropractor also performed a miracle and saved Ross from needing tubes put in his ears. Colic can, in many cases be taken out of the picture with one or two adjustments from a good chiropractor. And no, they don't adjust babies in the same way that they do adults. It's much gentler, with no cracking.

I've been stuck in the land of no Internet, living at my parents' house since I've been home from the hospital. Bruce undertook to completely remodel my kitchen while I was in the hospital. It's still not done, and I'm still located at my parents' house. I just stopped by home for a little bit to do a couple of things. I caught up on reading all of your blogs, but I couldn't comment because I can't type and breast-feed at the same time. Sorry that there are no pictures, my camera is at Mom & Dad's house.

I'm trying to decide if I should spend the day here putting things back together a bit, or just go back to Mom's house. I feel good, but can I handle all of that? I cleaned Mom's kitchen, picked up things in the basement, and did some laundry yesterday. (Then I laid down because it wore me out!) I hate having to sit still!

So, things that I meant to blog about from the past week:

1) I am super woman: I literally had the baby out in one push. No kidding, less than 10 seconds of pushing. My OB is literally 80 years old (but still sharp as a tack), so he's been delivering babies for probably 50 years. He said "I have never" (You know when a man whose been delivering babies for 50 years uses the word "never" it means something!) "I have never seen anyone push a baby out in one push before!" Now when he says "never" does he literally mean "never, " or just "very rarely?" I don't know.

2) Ross's thought for the day: "Mom, did you know that you can never be doing nothing? You are always either standing, sitting, or lying down."
"Sure, " I say "plus you are always breathing, and your heart is always beating, unless you are dead."
To which he replies "Even if you are dead, you are still doing two things. You are lying down, and rotting."

3) My fears with Justice were totally groundless. He LOVES his little brother. He always wants to "Kiss Kwayton" and "Hold Kwayton" I had to chase him out of the bedroom where Clayton was taking a nap repeatedly the other day. I had put him down for a nap, and gone back in to check on him, to find that Justice had put his glow worm in the bed with his little brother. Now, the glow worm is Justice's special toy that he takes to bed with him every night. Touched, I smiled, but I took it out -babies aren't supposed to sleep with stuffed toys, a suffocation thing. Justice came back into the bedroom, and put the glow worm back in, and turned it on, so Clayton could hear the music. I next had to let him kiss the baby a few times before he would leave him alone. Too sweet!

I could go on, but I need to get going! More later.