And the winner is ...

The winner of the ShopBirmingham T-shirt is Nikki at Nikki's Nacs!

Congratulations, Nikki! Send your address to me at stainsofgrass (at) yahoo (dot) com and I'll get it right out to you!

In addition, you are automatically entered into a drawing for two tickets to see Charlie Hunter at the Alys Stephens Center on Nov. 17, AND Magic City Post has thrown in two passes to a special invitation-only party on Thursday, Nov. 3 at Good People Brewing Company in downtown Birmingham.

So much fun! Thanks to everyone who entered.

Seven!

Nicholas,

Seven. It blows my mind that you’re already 7 years old. We were just talking last week about the time you were suspended from daycare before you were even 2, and I remember that like it was yesterday. (You didn’t remember it at all, and you laughed so hard I thought you’d cry because you thought it was so funny.)

 

First grade is shaping up to be a good year for you already, and I hope it remains that way. You are loving Miss H, and she says you keep her on her toes. Your reading, spelling and math skills are so far beyond first grade that you’re still a little bored with classwork, but Miss H is trying hard to give you other things to do so you stay engaged and out of trouble.

You remain our most passionate child in every way. You love extreme sports, you take even horseplay very seriously, you’re competitive, and of course emotionally you’re the most “charged” of the bunch. I continue to admire your honesty in emotion – even though sometimes it’s amazing just how much emotion that little body of yours can dish out.  ;)

 

You just SAY what you feel, as well as FEEL what you feel, and darn everyone else. When you’re happy, you glow. (And dance, usually.) When you’re angry, you lash out. (And hit an inanimate object such as a wall, usually.) When you’re tired, you put yourself to bed. (With no bath and no change of clothes, usually.) And when you’re sad or hurt, you just let it all out. 

You were so incredibly excited about Amelia’s upcoming arrival throughout my pregnancy… you kept wishing she could be here TODAY instead of in a month, a week, a few days. You and Jake would lie in bed and talk about what it was going to be like once she got here. Now that she’s here, you are absolutely, totally in love with her. When you come home from school, you race into the den, drop your backpack and hug and kiss her. I love watching you interact with her, and I know that as she grows up, you will be her number-one protector. 

When you came into our lives seven years ago, I had no idea how much you would change me, and change my heart. You made it grow several sizes, and you continue to stretch it to fit your boundless personality. I always wonder what kind of impact you’re going to have on the world outside our doors, because I feel like you’re destined to do big things. Someone who fills a room up like you do is bound to, right?

I love you with all my heart and thank God for you every night. I pray that He holds you in the palm of His hand and that He guides you every step of the way. You will always be my precious, precious Nicholas!

I love you,
Mommy

Amelia's first few days

I realized that with everything that's happened since Amelia was born, I haven't posted NEARLY enough pictures of her.

I'm going to do a few posts that cover her first month with us, even though some of these pictures go all the way back to her first few days. I know our family wants to see them ... and I bet a bunch of you who FEEL like family would like to see them, too.

Therefore, here are some pictures that I took before she and I ever left the hospital (the first time) and a few from her first day at home:

Hanging out with me in my hospital bed.

Ready to be loaded into the car after checking out of the hospital (4 days old) ...

The boys welcoming her home ...

Jake being helpful, feeding her ...

Many more to come.

24x24: Saturday, Oct. 9, 2011

Two days after I came home from the hospital (the second time), we hosted Nicholas' 7th birthday party at our house.

We had a good crowd, but a few families I expected to attend never showed up. The funny thing was that they assumed we had canceled it! My cousin Lesley (one of the women who stayed with me at the hospital) e-mailed me that evening to say, "Mom told me you had Nick's birthday party today!!! We didn't come because I thought that everyone you'd invited would KNOW what you've been through and would know you had canceled it!!!"

I was thinking to myself, "If I WERE going to cancel it, I certainly would have let the invitees know ahead of time." And when I was telling my friend Vanessa (who also stayed with me at the hospital) about the e-mail later, she said, "I would have assumed the OPPOSITE. That of course you were having the party. Because you are YOU."

Ha! Two people who know me so well, but came to two totally different conclusions.

For the record, I decided to go ahead with the party because it really was a simple little shindig. And I had asked our babysitter Anna to come over at 9 a.m. and help me get ready for it. Having helping hands made it all very easy.

Nick had requested a Nerf party, at which he just wanted to shoot soft bullets at his friends. WHAT A HOST.

Jake was more than happy to help with the shooting of the friends.

He was locked and loaded at 11 a.m. SHARP.

Once his friends entered the yard, Nick adopted a no-holds-barred mentality.

Luckily all of his friends are blood-thirsty little creeps, too. (HI, APRIL!) (April is the proud mom of Owen, pictured below.)

I would love to tell you that it was controlled chaos out there, but let's be real. There was nothing "controlled" about it.

Bullets were flying, and everyone disregarded my Rules, which really consisted of "No shooting at the head or face." Genitals were fair game.

The boys (he only invited boys this year) made excellent use of the tree fort and rock wall as far as seeking out the best vantage points for maximum damage.

Lisa's son Josh was the oldest in attendance, and he jumped from place to place. His strategy was very effective.

The tree fort was probably the most popular spot for getting above the fray and being able to see their human targets.

There were very few lulls in the action, but I tried to get a few pictures of each child. Kevin was kind enough to actually stop and stand still for me.

The dads' primary purpose was picking up and redistributing bullets. Bravo, men, brah-voh.

Nick asked for a dual-themed party, actually ... he wanted a "Nerf/Harry Potter party." So of course I had our cake lady Vickie make a Harry Potter cake.

I didn't ask her to make it different from Jake's (last April), but she did.

Yet again, her attention to detail was amazing!

And, as always, it was totally delicious.

Eventually we called all the warriors inside, and we sang Happy Birthday to Nick.

After we enjoyed our pizza and cake, we headed back outside to tear up the pinata.

It was a Harry Potter hat, and I think all but one child got a chance to whack the crap out of it before it was demolished.

We'd loaded it full of candy and given each child a Ziploc baggie, so they were quick to snatch up as much candy as possible when it broke open.

I had bought a pack of Harry Potter glasses, so of course I wanted a picture with all the kids wearing them.

You know I had to give Amelia a pair, too.

I. DIE. FROM. THE. CUTENESS.

24x24 is a series posted at totally irregular and unpredictable intervals. I invite you to participate anytime you'd like! Simply post 24 pictures from a 24-hour time period. You can just post the pictures alone, caption them, put a time stamp on each one ... whatever you'd like. If you'd like to write a 24x24 post of your own, grab the button at the top right of my blog and come back and let me know when you've published your post. I'd love to visit!

Before and after: the stairwell

When I added the board-and-batten treatment to our master bedroom and Amelia's room, I also asked the carpenter to add it to our stairwell.

It was just painted a light tan, and I felt like it really needed something more. I also desperately wanted something easier to clean handprints off of than the tan paint. (Seriously. You'll see what kind of shape it was in down below.)

I had visions of hanging our annual family pictures in a stairstep pattern once it was finished. So ...

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

I bought the same frames from Ikea that I used in Amelia's room (the Ribba frame, $9.99). I already had all of our family pictures from the last eight years enlarged to 8x10 size, so I just moved them from their former location (where they were framed in black) to the stairwell.

The frames go all the way up the left side to the top of the stairs, and then they come down the right side. I went ahead and hung a frame for our 2011 photo, but I'm waiting to get a great one (it's usually our Christmas card photo) to put in the frame. (So right now it is framing some strange people we don't know.)

I'm very happy with the way it turned out, though, and I'm especially glad to have high-gloss paint there now ... easier fingerprint removal!

About shopping (and a giveaway!)

** The giveaway has ended! **

You may have seen (via my Twitter feed ------>) that I took Amelia grocery shopping with me at Wal-Mart on Monday. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart's shopping carts don't have a safe place for an infant seat to go -- except in the main compartment where all your groceries need to go.

Problem solved.

Sort of. If only she'd been able to use her hands, I could have gotten the soft drinks that were on the list.

Two notes of trivia from our trip:

1. I was wearing my pedometer, and while I was there I walked 2,000 steps. Roughly 1,100 of those were due to the fact that they've remodeled since I was last there, and nothing was where I expected it to be. I did a LOT of backtracking.

1a. Why are peanut butter and jelly now on the Cookie aisle? They used to be in Condiments. AS THEY SHOULD BE.

2. The more "festive" flavors of Pop-Tarts (such as Confetti Cake) now have "To" and "From" stamped on one of the side panels of their boxes.

WOW. Birthday present shopping just got a LOT easier.

So. Shopping at Wal-Mart isn't what I would call "shopping locally." I prefer to shop locally whenever I can, though, and Birmingham is a GREAT place to do that. I can't tell you how many little independent shops we have, where I LOVE to shop for unique gifts.

At lunch recently, Wade at Magic City Post introduced me to ShopBirmingham.com, where Birmingham metro-area businesses have banded together to offer menus, gift certificates, products, services, general contact information and more, all in one place. The site makes it easy for those of us who live here to support the local economy, and convenient for us to find the  products and services available from shopkeepers all over the metro area.

He also gave me a really cool, retro-looking ShopBirmingham T-shirt to give away! (I got one, too, and I LOVE it.) It's chocolate brown in a size Large, and the cotton is super-soft.

Leave a comment on this post and you'll be entered to win; simple as that!

Good luck!

On having a girl

Now that she's here, this is all I can think about.

Chris Rock on having daughters: His take on it is, his only job is to "keep her off the pole." I find this hilarious. Always have. Great clip, but LANGUAGE. If you don't like curse words, skip the video (but if you can handle them, it's a great minute-and-a-half).



I would hereby like to respectfully add my own items to the list:

Keep her out of the orange shorts ...

and off The Bachelor/Bachelorette.

AMEN.

Part 5: The light at the end of the tunnel

If you missed them, you can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here and Part 4 here.

I know you guys likely feel like this story has no end in sight. That I'm going to keep writing about it until you die of boredom. But, GOOD NEWS! This is the last installment. And while it hasn't been pleasant for me to re-tell it, it's been really important to my friends and family. Since I didn't answer my phone the entire time I was in the hospital, only a few of them know the story ... and most of THEM only know bits and pieces of it, mostly what they were able to get from texts from Lisa.

So thanks for being patient and indulging us all as I've written it out. Now, ONWARD, to hear more about Our Very Favorite Subject, my hemorrhoids.

For whatever reason, on Wednesday they came back with a vengeance. And when I say "with a vengeance," I mean they were the worst they've ever been, and I had to lie 100 percent still and not talk, laugh, cough or move my body one iota in any way or I would cry. My bottomparts were seizing up at random times, and the pain was so unbearable I begged and begged for the nurse to call the surgeon. Lisa was back, and she tried to help me make my case.

I can't remember how many times I asked for the nurse to call him, but ultimately I said, "Forget the surgeon. CALL ANESTHESIOLOGY AND GET ME AN EPIDURAL." I suppose I wore her down, although she still apparently didn't believe me about how intense the pain was, because after a few hours of begging, she came in with another nurse.

"Before we bother the surgeon with this, we're just gonna take a look and see what we see. Roll over and pull your legs up."

So I did. And then she said, "MY, THAT IS IMPRESSIVE. We're going to call the surgeon now. He might come to the room instead of you having to go over to his office."

"WELL THANK YOU VERY MUCH," said my hemmies.

The surgeon DID INDEED come to my room and lance the hemorrhoids, but he only gave me two shots of local anesthetic instead of the eight to 10 that he'd given me in his office. So when he lanced them, I felt every. single. cut. And when he drained them, I felt every. single. squeeze. I was holding onto the bedrails and sobbing. It wasn't pretty.

And then he left me, just like that. I had Lortab and Demerol, but they didn't touch the pain. Lisa spent the night with me, but even my elephant-tranq-level sleep meds couldn't overcome the pain and force me to sleep. I sobbed until I literally ran out of tears. It was a truly miserable night.

But come Thursday, six days after I'd been readmitted, the pain had subsided from, OH, A 15 TO A MERE 10, and Grayson came to check me out.

I wasn't feeling mental anymore, I had some sleep medication that the psychiatrist was willing to keep tweaking until we settled on the perfect combo, and I DESPERATELY wanted to be with my kids. I missed them so much it hurt. I hated missing moments like Nicholas' 7th birthday (but his teacher was kind enough to text me a picture):

And moments like this:

I will say (since I'm sure some are wondering) that although I had a post-partum BP event and substantial sleep interruption, I never once felt traditional post-partum depression. I never wanted to harm myself or my kids, and as a matter of fact, I wanted to be with them more than ever. I just wasn't capable of it until Thursday.

Now that I've been home for just over a week, I'm still working with my doctors on the right combination of sleep meds. My BP is fairly well-managed, but sleep is still proving a challenge. I can't support Grayson by getting up with Amelia at night, because the meds don't allow me to wake up in the middle of the night. As a matter of fact, right now they're keeping me asleep for 12 hours, which would be great -- if we didn't have a newborn to care for.

And speaking of Grayson, he had complete responsibility for all four kids while I was in the hospital the second time around, and he did a GREAT job. He was a real hero and kept things as normal as possible for them while I wasn't able to be at home.

I feel so grateful that I had the love and support of my friends and family as I navigated this entirely new territory, and I'm happy to be home participating in all the precious moments I felt like I was missing in the hospital.

"Blessed" doesn't even begin to describe it.