Quick Update From Life Here In Never-A-Dull-Moment-Land

• We are just back from a trip to Atlanta. Big post about that (awesome) trip coming soon.
• Our flight home from Atlanta was delayed, and after a long day, we pulled into our driveway just a bit after 1am Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Braydon clicked the garage door opener and nothing happened. He clicked it again. Nothing. He clicked like a madman. Nothing. With no other way into the house, we started to panic. Leaving the three kids sleeping in the backseat, Braydon and I got out of the car and walked to the front yard of the house— seeing no lights on (not even the nightlight that is always on in the upstairs bathroom), it quickly became obvious that our power was out. Nightmare. We will forever now carry a key to our front door with us… but prior to Tuesday night/Wednesday morning we stupidly did not. After a call to the power company (who said, “call back at 8am,” and with no other viable options, we had to call Margie at 1:30am, waking her up, and asking to borrow our own house key from her. Nightmare. We drove to her house, got the key from our rudely-awoken-pajama’d-in-the-middle-of-the-night-nanny-from-heaven, drove home, got into the house, somehow found flashlights in the pitch dark, and managed to have the three bambinos miserably, but safely, in bed and semi-asleep by 2:15am. It is very hot here (not as hot as Atlanta, but still– very hot), and with no AC [AC required for M to sleep– she’s spoiled like that], no fans [fan required for K to sleep– he’s spoiled like that], no nightlights [nightlight required for O to sleep– he’s spoiled like that], etc., etc., etc., we were in some kind of hazy-fuzzy-surreal-pitch-dark funk. Nightmare. There were tears shed. {for the record: by Mama only.} We spent the entire next day and night without power. No water, no stove, no way to shower or bathe after traveling… lost everything in our freezers and fridge… etc., etc., etc. Nightmare. More tears shed. {for the record: by Mama only.} Finally, Thursday the power came back. But the thing with things like this is that the aftermath is almost as nightmarish as the nightmare itself. Life seemed totally and completely derailed by the time the power came back on. More tears shed. {for the record: by Mama only.} We are currently working our tails off to get back on track and cope with the messy, messy aftermath. More tears shed. {for the record: by Mama only.} We have re-realized for the millionth time what we already knew we were: we are wooses, wimps, wickedly-spoiled people who have become utterly and sickeningly and pathetically dependent on our creature comforts. While camping in Assateague Island (with twin three year olds) or trekking across the Yucatan (with an infant) don’t phase us, while at home we are mercilessly at the mercy of the power company and all of the other powers-that-be that make our house our home. We like our adventures but we rely –heavily– on coming home to our smooth-as-silk-oasis-that-we-call-HOME. We are a pathetic bunch who have no right complaining about anything. So, I’ll just stop there. But suffice it to say: Lots of tears have been shed. {for the record: by Mama only.}
• The MRSA is back. (click here) Oh yes it is. With a vengeance. We first noticed fresh new very-MRSA-like-looking-abscess-type-things on the legs of Owen and Meera while we were still in Atlanta on Tuesday. We got M and O to our (angelic) family doctor as soon as the power-outage-dust-had-settled on Thursday afternoon. She confirmed what we suspected: MRSA is again amongst us. This is gross, gross stuff people. I’m talking seriously gross.  If you’re unfamiliar with it just send up a prayer right now that you’ll never have to familiarize yourself. So, our three are on another round of the MRSA-antibiotics. Three times in three months for our three now. And on top of it, our pediatrician suspects that (given the come-backs) one of them might be a carrier. So… we also have to smear an antibiotic cream on the inside of their nostrils every night before they go to bed for the next SIX WEEKS. That is in addition to dealing with the actual MRSA (think wounds, boils, abscesses leaking fluid and draining puss and emitting blood and stuff). Again: gross. Oh, and Meera and Owen are both running fevers and needing Tylenol every four hours. Round the clock. Nice.
• Because of the MRSA we had to cancel our weekend plans. Those plans had been set since New Year’s Eve. It was supposed to be our second annual pool bash with the Slavins. It is just such a bummer to have to cancel a weekend like that with your college roommate. It practically broke my heart to have to do it. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. And I was so looking forward to all the margaritas that we’d drink together poolside. Lots of tears have been shed. {for the record: by Mama only… although the other 4 J-Ms are totally heart-sick about this cancellation too.}
• The day before we left for Atlanta I spent the afternoon at the hospital with Kyle. The day before he had stubbed his toe very badly. Like, the entire toe nail was pulled off and was left only hanging on by a tiny piece on the left side of the nail bed. Being the uber-responsible parents that we are(n’t), we put him to bed that night without thinking much of it. But when we went to check on him before heading to bed ourselves he was drenched in sweat, and moaning and groaning in his sleep with pain. And this is a child who– like his brother– has the highest pain tolerance you can possibly imagine (think skiing and skating and sledding for a week with a broken collar bone). Tylenol didn’t touch it. We then loaded him up with Motrin too. I had to sleep in his bed with my arms wrapped around him to get him to fall back to sleep. He was in serious, serious pain. Braydon took him to our (angelic) family doctor the next morning and she took one look at the toe and told Braydon to get him to the hospital. Braydon went to work for the afternoon and I took over with K. We saw a specialist and the toe got cleaned out and bandaged and — big deal for our boy — Kyle had his first ever x-rays. Turns out the toe is not broken, but it was a pretty serious foot/toe injury. Toenail is now completely off and the doctors give it a 50/50 chance of growing back. We are hoping for it to someday grow back (pllleeeeeeeeeaaase grow back!!!!!). Kyle loved the hospital trip and savored every second of the adventure (crazy, crazy kid). I was worried about his toe, but also worried about missing work and frantically trying to wrack-my-brain to figure out how we were going to pull off getting the five of us to Atlanta the next day. Here are some photos taken with my iPhone while there:
  

  my best-effort photo of Kyle. you can see he was loving the whole experience... especially that orange Fanta (a VERY special treat).

• Also right before we left for Atlanta, Meera suddenly and unexpectedly and out-of-the-blue determined for herself that she was ready for a “big bed” and began demanding that we get rid of her crib. This is a major development. As shocking as this has been, it is so Meera’s style to just decide this for herself and take it upon herself to make this next step happen. What is bizarre is that we had never mentioned anything about a “big bed” (in fact, we had actively avoided it since everything was going so swimmingly well with Meera’s sleeping). This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, however, since it is how it went with sleeping in her crib in the first place (moving out of the co-sleeper from Mama and Papi’s room), moving from nursing to bottle, and starting solid foods, potty-training, etc. She’s got a mind of her own that one. It makes our hearts sing and sting at the same time. Anyway– Braydon took the crib rail off and she was sort of happy with that at first. But then we went to Atlanta…. where she slept in a real bed… and now she’ll never be the same again. She wants a bed– like with a pillow, covers, blankets, the whole 9-yards– and she’ll settle for nothing less. So, she’s been sleeping with us IN OUR BED (this is unprecedented for us) and the plan is to set up a real bed in her room this weekend. We will see how it goes. No matter what happens this weekend with the “big bed” this new stage of life for Meera has brought with it a flood of emotions and I am just soooo soo sooooooo sad to see my baby becoming a non-baby. Please can’t I freeze time? Please??? Why can’t she sleep happily in that crib forever? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Lots of tears have been shed. {for the record: by Mama only.} (not really; no tears have actually been shed; but almost; and — complete truth: a little piece of me crumbles and cracks with each of these growing-right-up-developments… that is the absolute honest-to-God truth. I hate it whenever my baby birds start to show any signs of spreading their wings and GOD HELP ME when they start to get close to actually leaving my little nest).
• So, given Kyle’s toe, Meera’s bed development, the trip to Atlanta, the power outage, the MRSA, and everything else…  we have been playing Musical Beds each night. Last night, for example, we went to bed with K&O in K’s bed, and Meera in our bed with us. But given all sorts of issues that cropped up in the night, we woke up with Kyle alone in his bed, Owen and Papi in Owen’s bad, and Meera and Mommy in Mommy and Papi’s bed. Lots of tears were shed. {for the record: none of them by Mama.} Also for the record: this Musical Beds thing is not conducive to healthy sleep patterns or sane minds.
• This afternoon in the midst of doing the umpteen-millionth load of post-trip and post-power-outage and MRSA-related laundry, we found our laundry room floor flooded. Luckily Braydon quickly diagnosed the problem (something about the drainage pipe coming unhinged???) and was able to fix it. But there was water everywhere and the rug and everything else on the floor was drenched. Ugh. When it rains, it pours. Right???

Never a dull moment.