National Museum of Play

Earlier this month Kristen and the girls came up for another visit. We decided to pile everyone in the van and head to Rochester to meet PJ - my cousin Denine's new baby boy. PJ was born at 10lbs exactly and at 6 weeks old was up to 13lbs. The boy has a lot to love. He has perfectly kissable lips.

He started sleeping with one eye open since Jamison got a hold of him.

**cue JAWS music**

Jamison loved PJ. It got to the point that when I was holding PJ Jamison was not jealous that I was holding PJ but that HE wasn't holding PJ. Jamie would grab at him and try to pull him from my arms.
It was a bit awkward for Jamison since PJ is a chunk. Being 13lbs PJ looks like he should be able to hold his head up - but, as we all know, six-week olds typically don't hold their heads up.

My mother pointed out how large PJ looked when Jamie was holding him. "Look at the size of his feet!" Kristen then had to let mom know that she was looking at Jamison's feet, not PJ's. So PJ is not that big. To mom's credit it did look like an optical illusion due to the way Jamison was sitting and holding the baby.

The next day we decided to meet up with Aunt Linda, Denine, and PJ at the Strong National Museum of Play. Lily helped Maddie and Ruthie put their shoes on so we could leave on time.

I wasn't sure what to expect at the museum but there is no way I could imagine how fun it would be for all of us. There is a whole area devoted to Sesame Street. There are four different areas that look exactly like the sets from Sesame Street.

The kids waved at Big Bird and Aunt Linda joined in. I'm sure she was just showing them how it's done.

Elmo's World. I think the twins enjoyed this area more than my kids.

Lily, Jamie, and I bought extra tickets to go into the butterfly area. They both were equally excited even though I mentioned, repeatedly, "DO NOT TOUCH THE BUTTERFLIES."

LIly and I have a few (understatement of the year) things in common. One in particular is that we do not like the heat. We enjoy the sun, we like warm weather, but we do not like heat and humidity. Once we entered the room Lily and I immediately said the same thing - "it's really hot in here." And it was. Humidity was at 3,000%.

So Lily was not in the mood for pictures. She refused to look at the butterfly that Jamison found and for added drama crossed her arms and pouted. But Jamie did a good job of not touching the butterfly.

Don't enjoy yourself too much Lily. I wouldn't want to think that you appreciated the experience.

Excellent example of not touching the butterfly!

DON'T TOUCH THE BUTTERFLY JAMISON!

I wasn't, I was waving at it.

And it appeared that was the case. I apologized for flipping out.

Afterwards we headed toward the middle of the museum that was packed with all sorts of things. There was a replica Victorian home that Maddie and Ruthie stayed in for about an hour playing tea, a dress up/stage area for performances, a pirate ship, and a huge airplane that the kids could climb in.

I'm sure you can guess who was first to run to the airplane.

Lily joined him for the pre-flight checklist.

There appeared to be a mechanical problem with the aircraft.

Having fun in the airplane Jamie?

And that's when I was corrected. Jamison pointed out that it wasn't an airplane but a helicopter. What? And then as I looked closer it did, in fact, have a propeller on top. How in the world did he notice that?

There is another area that is a small replica of a Wegman's supermarket. The kids grab a cart and are allowed to choose five items to check out.

Lily unloaded her cart and prepared to check out.

Each item has a UPC code that gets scanned and is actually entered into the register. After everything is scanned Lily hit "total" and an accurate receipt came out.

Aunt Linda pretended to be Lily's customer and tried to greet Lily.

Linda:" Hi there."

Lily: (silence)

Linda: "Lily, you're supposed to say hello to the customer."

Lily: "hello."

Linda: "my Wegman's is a lot more friendly than this Wegman's"

Lily: (silent and apathetic, just wants to scan her food)

Lily proceeded to go food shopping five more times, each time insisting to check out at the "5" register since she is 5 years old. The four other registers could be completely open and she would wait in line for the "5" one. It was a little too intense.

I wasn't sure how Maddie, Ruthie, and Jamie would do at Wegman's but they caught on and were pretty good shoppers.

Notice that Kristen has a different hair cut all of a sudden? My cousin Myriah works at a very nice hair salon and was able to squeeze Kris in for a new style. I never got a close up shot of her but I promise it looks cute.

Jamison was having a hard time scanning his sweet potato. Or his yam. I'm not sure which one it was.

Naturally Lily made her way to the stage. Oddly, dressing up and performing was the last thing she did in this area. The stage also has a sound board and a light board (is that what it's called? any theater lighting technicians out there to correct me?).

She spent the majority of her time changing the lighting and the music to everyone else's performances (which is allowed). So when she got her opportunity to get on stage can anyone guess what she did? It's embarrassing. She completely called out the other girl doing the lighting and the music and ran over there to change it to her preference. It all happened so quickly that I didn't have time to explain that what she did was incredibly inappropriate. Lucky for her, the girl couldn't have cared less about the lighting and music. And lucky for me, the girls' mother was no where in sight.

After her performance I had to sit her down and explain that while the lighting and the music may not have been to her satisfaction it was rude to tell someone else how to do it. Yes, sometimes we don't agree with how other people do things but that doesn't mean we have to be rude about it. And then I had the opportunity to tell her that I do the exact same thing all the time and I have to work on it too. It's hard having a mini-me.

After four hours in the museum we had to head back to Albany. The kids were exhausted but I think we could have made it a full day in there if we had the time. Since we go to Rochester a few times a year I will make sure that we squeeze time in for the museum each time we go. Next visit with the kids is in June for my cousin Jill's wedding. I wonder if we can go to the museum in between the wedding and the reception?

Three Stitches

Tuesday evening was going to be a little different from our typical schedule. Brian and I had a meeting at Loudonville Christian about Lily's kindergarten acceptance and then we were eating dinner at my mom's house, where she was watching the kids.

During the meeting my phone kept buzzing at me. I think it's really rude to look at my phone in this type of meeting (at work, different story, I'm always looking at it then) so I just ignored it. As soon as the meeting was over I took a look and I had missed two calls and my father was texting me - Jamison fell. Call your mother ASAP.

Now the fact that Jamison fell is not much news. He falls every 10 minutes. But the fact that I had to call my mother about it was the news.

When I called she was calm, which was a good sign. Somehow Jamie slammed the bridge of his nose on the coffee table and it was bleeding continually. Lots of blood. She might have said the phrases "blood bath" and "huge gaping gash". Since Brian and I were driving in separate cars we had to figure out via cell phones who was doing what while rushing to my parents house.

Brian has been working like a mad man for the past few weeks. Not so much like that awful tv show but really like a mad man - leaving the house before 7am to get to the office early, staying a bit late each night, and keeping up his insane work out routine. OH - and he has to deal with a pregnant wife and hyper kids. So the last thing he needed was an evening in the ER. A lot of this has to do with being in a family business. As odd as it sounds I (we - let's be honest, the whole office) needed him to be 100% at work the next day more than I needed him in the ER. The ER I could manage. Working as hard as he does in the office I couldn't pull off. So we argued about that for a while and it was decided that I would take Jamison to the ER.

Brian had a valid argument about me going to the hospital It must be acknowledged that I have a problem with blood. It makes me a little weak. I haven't passed out from it in a while (small victories) but it definitely affects me. It's been this way for as long as I can remember. So the fact that I was pushing to go to the ER was a risk. Did the hospital staff really need a bloody toddler and his woozy pregnant mother? And the answer was yes.

When we arrived at the house Jamison was eating dinner and talking about the new car. (we bought a new minivan that afternoon) Thankfully he was acting completely normal.

So his maiden voyage in our new minivan was to St. Peter's hospital. Lovely. I was grateful that the bleeding had stopped by that time or else that new van smell would have been tarnished.

We were barely there 15 minutes when we were put in a room. And this is where we lived for almost 4 hours. It wouldn't have taken as long if the doctor hadn't asked for xrays. She thought that he might have broken his nose.

It never entered my head that I should take a picture of him until I decided to take pictures of things with my camera to entertain him. All the pictures I have of our ER visit are from my phone so the quality isn't the best.

See? He was a happy boy the whole time we were waiting. He was trying to smile without wrinkling his nose so the result looks like his growling.

My father showed up about three hours in to distract Jamison - which was needed. Now my dad is another one who should not be around a lot of blood. But here we both were.

The worst part was the 15 minutes that they had to restrain him in order to stitch up the gash. I later told my sister - "remember the worst night of our lives the night after Maddie's open heart surgery? I experienced 15 minutes of that with my son". To restrain him they laid a pillow case flat on the bed, laid him on top of it and trapped his arms in the opening of the pillow case. His body was then swaddled in blankets and taped to the bed. There were 5 of us restraining him while the doctor worked on the wound. A big, big, big man named Reuben had his lower half. One nurse had his head. The other two were on one side and I was on the other. My dad looked in from the door and tried to talk to Jamison. He didn't know what else to do with himself since he couldn't be near the blood.

The doctor had to inject three shots of lidocaine directly into the open bloody gash. Oh that was horrible. HORRIBLE. Jamison didn't even know the words to express himself. At one point blood was pouring into his eyes (the doctor was injecting into the wound) and he kept screaming SPICY! The nurse looked at me and we both said - does he mean it stings? That was when I just put my head on Jamie's chest and spoke softly to him. I might have sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and declared my love for him over and over. I physically could not look at what the doctor was doing but I wanted Jamie to at least hear me (could he possibly hear me over himself? I didn't care - I was going to talk the entire time).

I was hoping he'd calm down when she did the stitches but no - he was riled up and not about to back down. It required three stitches and while she wasn't very quick about it she was very efficient. I'm glad she didn't rush it since he will have a scar there for life and the neater the stitches the smoother the scar will be. The nurse said that comparatively speaking he was not that bad. Yes, he screamed, but he didn't really struggle.

As soon as she finished I grabbed him and just held him close. He was sweaty and smelled like blood but it was the best hug I have ever had from him. I can honestly say I didn't feel guilty for putting him through this. Obviously we were doing what was best for him. The thing that bothered me was that HE didn't know that what we were doing was best for him.

So two days later, this is what it looks like:

He is still bruised and swollen but unless he messes with the stitches it doesn't bother him. The stitches come out Monday morning when I'm in Florida at a tradeshow. Perfect timing. My mother will be taking him so that experience will be all hers.

Nurse Michelle gave Jamison this certificate that he is very proud of:

They must be big NASCAR fans at St. Peter's because all the stickers were racing numbers. The one on the bottom is Jr's autograph. Jamie immediately ripped off gte sticker of the race car and held it.

We were discharged around 10pm so I figured Jamison would drop asleep as soon as we got in the car. Nope. He was wired. Ready to take on the world - he wasn't going to let a coffee table or an ER visit slow him down!

Something that did slow him down? Me and my stupidity. This being a new van, I thought I had completely buckled his car seat onto the seat itself (there was no time to attach the seat to the latch system in between throwing the car seat in the van and taking him to the hospital). But no, apparently I didn't push the shoulder belt part of the seat belt all the way into the clicker thing. (he was secure in the five part harness, mind you)

And how did I realize this? When I had to stop short at a stop light and his car seat leaned into the back of my seat. Oh I felt horrible, sick to my stomach, gut wrenching nausea. I immediately pulled over and he was asking why my seat hit his face. Mama made a mistake. A BIG mistake. Luckily the motion didn't touch the brand new stitches. Can you imagine how awful that would have been? No. Let's not. Let's just move on.

He slept well that night. The next day was a different story. No nap. The tylenol with codeine that was prescribed had the OPPOSITE effect (what is up with that and my kids? Same thing happens when Lily take Benedryl - can I not catch a break?!). Then Thursday, no nap. I was cooking dinner around 4:30 while he and Lily were watching Word Girl (he, reluctantly since he doesn't like that show). I peeked in at one point because it was quiet and this is how I found him:

So cute and cuddly. Yuck - and wet. When I went to pick him up to put him on the couch I realized he wet his pants in his sleep. I'll take urine over blood any day.

Fashion

I have been getting random headaches almost every day with this pregnancy. The headaches encompass a small pinpoint in my head but they are so strong that all I want to do is close my eyes and sit very still.

So last week I laid down when a headache hit and asked Lily to get herself dressed. Jamison still needs a little help getting dressed so I didn't say anything to him.

After 20 minutes and one Tylenol I was feeling a bit better so I got up and headed down stairs only to see that Jamison got himself dressed! And I must say he has an exceptional taste in style.

He had on two shirts. The first was orange and inside out. The second was on properly (Lily says she didn't help him so I was very surprised by this) and then he had on a puffy vest that coincidentally (? maybe not?) matched with the orange and the blue.

The random article of clothing was a size 4 (he's a solid size 2) pair of shorts that he found in a drawer. They barely stayed up but he was determined to wear them.

And, of course, he didn't put any socks on. He is incredibly anti-socks...even in the dead of winter. I warn him that his toes will turn black and fall off and he just pretends he doesn't hear me.


Since his bedtime is 7:30 he completely missed the American Idol cultural phenomenon of Pants On the Ground. But I still called him Mr. Pants On the Ground. And then I had two kids asking me over and over what I meant. Never mind. Just pretend I didn't say it.

This clothing miracle happened on the day after we received 16 inches of snow and while it would have been a great day to stay inside I was scheduled to drop the kids off at the mall with my mom and then head to work. There is no way that boy could go outside with these shorts on. I said it was too cold. He didn't care. I said that people don't wear shorts in winter. Apathy. I said that the snow would make his legs turn black and fall off. My toes too mama? Remnants of the headache were still there and he wasn't making this any easier.

I had to break his heart and tell him that Grrrmam wouldn't let him go into the mall wearing those shorts. Within minutes I had him in a pair of pants and we were on our way. The boy loves the mall.

Electricity

We had the opportunity to experience the "family bed" last night from 2:54am-3:47am. I decided that our family bed needed to be upgraded from a queen to a king. Or a triple king, if they make those.

Our power mysteriously went out at 2:54am and at 2:54:13 the screams of terror started. Our kids not only have nightlights but also white noise machines (fans). Whenever we travel we always make sure to bring the nightlights and mini fans. We would never attempt to have our kids sleep without them. When both of those go off (or are forgotten on a trip by a scatterbrained mother) it's not a good thing.

Hearing the calls for help, I fell out of bed and for some, inexplicable reason, spent a good 6 seconds trying to find my glasses all the while hearing Jamison banging into everything in his room. I don't know what good my glasses would have done since it was pitch black. But I had them on in any case!

Lily was somehow able to actually make it out of her room (this is amazing since her room is a mess and there is JUNK all over the floor. I plan on taking a shop-vac into her room today and fixing her clutter issue) but Jamison was scared out of his mind and it took a good 10 minutes for him to stop shaking.

Brian took the initiative to light some candles since all our flashlights are broken. How do three flashlights get broken? You let two children play with them in the basement for hours - then, and only then, are they ok with playing in the dark. In the middle of the night? Not so much.

Brian and I bookended the kids in bed and prepared to be uncomfortable until 6am. In addition to the four humans there was also my "speed bump" as Brian calls it. When I am pregnant I sleep with a huge body pillow to eleviate pain in my back. Even with the crowded bed I wasn't going to give up that pillow.

The only sound we could hear was Jamison sucking his thumb. The minimal light we had (besides the candles) was the moonlight reflecting off the snow. It should have been peaceful and snuggly and the epitome of the family moment. I hope it was for the kids.

Brian and I were so incredibly relieved when the power came back on less than an hour later. Could National Grid actually have pulled through? For what our electric bill is every month they better! If anyone is ever planning on moving to NY (I always wonder how people do make it up here) research utility bills (ACK - and taxes!) before making any commitment. They're not pretty.

We turned off our alarm and wondered how late the kids would sleep in this morning. It is the most luxurious thing in the world when kids sleep in. And yet, THEY DIDN'T. Lily was up at 6:40 to inform me that her clock was blinking 12 and so she didn't know if it was 7:00 yet - could she get out of bed and tell Jamison to stop kicking the wall? And yes, Jamison was wide awake kicking the wall and singing a song about a donut and a nickel with a hole in it. Fantastic.

Brian and I decided that this is excellent preparation for nursing the upcoming baby in the middle of the night. I, for one, do not believe such early preparation is necessary.

Stay At Home Mom

For almost three weeks, through a series of odd events, I've been home with the kids instead of part-time at work. I attempted to get some work done when the kids were occupied but overall I couldn't spend more than an hour or so at a time on the computer. As soon as I logged on to our database it's as if a noise that only children can hear is emitted and they come running to me.



I've observed a lot while at home and have decided that there are many pros and cons. And, despite the number of cons, the pros will always win out. Somehow a bad day with the kids is always chalked up to "that's life" and while I may be exhausted and frustrated at the end of some days in the end, that's what having kids is about.


Pro: I'm able to concentrate on potty training Jamison and Lily (and her doll) is a great help to me.

Con: He continues to strip during training and will escape from me. Unfortunately, this time, he shared this with the neighborhood. Question: When is a child considered "potty trained"? A week of no accidents or a month? We don't count naptime or bedtime, just awake time.

Pro: I'm able to comfort my daughter when she is sick.

Con: She happened to not only catch strep once, but twice, and in between each occurrence was diagnosed as allergic to penicillin. This picture doesn't give justice to the allergic reaction she got from the penicillin and she wasn't exactly willing to take the picture.

Pro: Occasionally, I'm able to work when the kids are playing together.

Con: While I was on a conference call they both ran to me arguing over a doll/fire truck situation. Having to explain that one to the callers was awkward. After that I learned how to mute my cell phone.

Pro: I get an idea of what my cat does during the day when we're not here.

Con: The cat is boring. But apparently very good at balancing. And yes, our cat does not have a tail. He is very sensitive about it so please don't mention it to him.

Pro: I feel like I get so many little things done during the day. Things that I normally would push to a Saturday or a Sunday get done immediately.

Con: At the end of the day I look around and can't remember when I did with my time. Nothing looks accomplished. I have to tell myself that if I hadn't done those little things throughout the day the house would look a lot worse. Of course, it would have been helpful if I told my kids to pick up the purple T-Rex that was in the middle of the floor. If that little task had been accomplished it would have prevented me from sliding across the floor on the dinosaur and slamming my neck (near my hairline) into the corner of our kitchen wall. No, that's not a hickey, it's the bruise I got. Lovely.

Pro: Winter time=outdoor fun!

Con: We have had little to no snow and the temps have been well below what is safe for kids. Even if it did warm up what are they going to do out there? Play with frozen dirt? Swing on metal swings and get wind burn? Sounds like fun to me!

As a result we have been stuck in the house. When Lily wasn't contagious or breaking out in odd rashes, we ran errands but cabin fever set in pretty quickly. We did the mall. We did the museum. We did the doctor's office 4 times. We're running out of options.

My mom returns home tomorrow and next week should be a normal week again. Work from 10-3, kids from 3:30 to 9:15 the next morning. We are used to our own schedule and can't wait to get back to normalcy.

Spam

A few weeks ago (ok, I'll be honest. I just realized, by looking at the dates below, that it was actually last week. I could have sworn that this happened weeks ago, this just shows how little time is impacting my life) our spam filter at work died.

This doesn't happen very often but when it does we get flooded with all sorts of lovely emails. I had no idea there were so many prospective Russian brides! And they're all so friendly!

So I had obviously just deleted those except for the one below that I copied and pasted. It was from my sister and while the subject looked like spam I couldn't help but passing it along to her.

Usually when emails are forwarded the most recent email is at the top. When I copied this email I did the opposite. The original email is first then the replies below it are in response.

Original Message------From: Kristen Sullivan


To: Katie Whitt

Subject: Russian dating site


Sent: Feb 1, 2010 5:45 PM





I can do for you is - what can not no girl!

On Mon, 2/1/10, Katie Whitt wrote:
From: Katie Whitt Katie@.com

Subject: Not spam. But the forward is

To: "Kristen Sullivan" kristensullivan@.com

Date: Monday, February 1, 2010, 5:15 PM

Our spam filter is broken until tomorrow afternoon. Look what you sent me!------

From: Kristen Sullivan [mailto:kristensullivan@.com]


On Monday, February 01, 2010 6:27 PM


To: Katie Whitt

Subject: Re: Not spam. But the forward is





Oh. I thought you knew? This was the new blast I sent out to my customers. Thought you might like a sneak peak. Bad choice? I was just thinking with Valentine's Day and all, who doesn't need a Russian Bride? -Kristen---


Usually at work we're busy dealing with problems (that's the job) so we need to find every opportunity we can to laugh at something during the day. The email above was my laugh for the day. For Valentine's Day, everyone is getting a Russian bride. There are tons to go around for anyone who is interested.

West, Texas

I need to start off by saying thank you to everyone who voted on our baby names. Sad news - we're no where closer to a name. Happy news - I found out my next ultrasound is February 24 so we'll find out then if I'm right about having a boy.

In the meantime I have wanted to post about one of my favorite places in Texas for a while and it just kept getting pushed down on my "edit" list. Texas has some fun names for their towns/cities. There are the foreign names: Paris, London, Florence, and Moscow, for example. And then there are the hard to pronounce names: Nacogdoches, Waxahachie, Bexar county (the x is silent), and Pflugerville.

But my favorite is West, Texas. No, not west Texas. Don't be silly. I've only been there once and it's obvious that the people have to be overly-wonderful to make up for the landscape. (I think I worded that perfectly. How can anyone be offended by that?.....)

West, Texas is about 60 minutes south of Dallas and Brian and I used to pass it every time we were driving from Searcy to Temple. The reason it caught my attention? Those people are so cute and clever!

The heritage is purely Czech and you know it the minute you drive into it. (And, actually, that is the same minute that you drive out of it). They have a convenience store/gas station/Czech deli that is called the Czech Stop. I LOVE IT! And, recently, they opened the Czech Inn. Ha! And according to the website there is also a Czech Point Collectibles, but I've never seen that one.

I usually annoyed Brian enough on our road trips that by the time we made it to West he was very focused on making it to his parents house without throwing me out of the car. So we never stopped. And then the one time he offered we had a cranky toddler in the back who was about to crash since we forced her on a flight to Dallas very early in the morning.

Since I was driving by myself from Dallas-Temple last month I decided to give in and stop where they've been telling me to stop for over 10 years - the Czech Stop. When I walked in I did not expect all the signs to be in Czech. If it weren't for the Czech girl in national costume painted on the ladies restroom door I would not have known which door to enter. I would have met a very unhappy Czech man, probably.

Thanks to my in-laws I was introduced to kolaches very early in my dating relationship with Brian. Who would have guessed it but there is a lot of Czech heritage in Texas. If I were to describe a kolache I would have to put it in the same category as a donut but they're not as dense. More light and fluffy. The pastries are usually fruit filled but you can also get them with cheese or meat. I ordered a dozen of fruit variety. I only ate two. I was pretty proud of myself since I could have used the "I'm pregnant and will eat whatever I want" excuse.

But then I saw the sausage. I love sausage. And not really the breakfast kind. More like the Italian kind with peppers and onions that the sell at Yankee Stadium for $57 (or what feels like $57). Polish sausage will fit into this category as well as bratwurst. And the Czech stop had my kind of sausage. I controlled myself and only got one sausage and cheese filled kolache. As I was eating this gooey delicacy I felt my heart shudder (in a bad way) and I feared for the fetus but my body is stronger than cholesterol! I can't imagine eating more than one of those a year. Or maybe once every two years.

When I walked into the house with my Czech Stop bag Brian just shook his head. He knew that I now had one less item on my Bucket List.

www.czechstop.net