We have been in Fort Morgan for 6 months. I didn’t think that being anywhere for 6 months would cause for celebration. However, Fort Morgan was quite a transition for us. New job for Nate. New Baby. New House. New Neighbors. New Ward. New, new, new. Not to mention a new culture. Seriously. I am quickly learning cattle and farming terms as well as translating the local vernacular. (Stubbs= central meeting point off of I-76 near Wiggins.) 

We have found some little gems in Fort Morgan like the Library and Riverview Park. Here are a few shots of Phin’s favorite things in our new home town.

An old train on display in fabulous downtown Fort Morgan. Besides a festive (flaking) paint job and splintery railroad ties, in the summer it also features beehives. Every time we drive past it, he yells, “Hi! Train! Bye, Train! Later, Train!” 

Here is Phin riding his favorite Red Pig. When I was uploading the picture he said, “Phin riding Red Pig!” Oh, that red pig…he can spot it anywhere. I think it looks pretty evil. But he loves it so.

This was Phin’s first love in Fort Morgan. A bronze statue of “Annie the Railroad Dog.” (Apparently Annie greeted train passengers 60 years ago at the Fort Collins train station.) He will ride it. Hug it. Kiss it. Pet it. He LOVES this dog. I also love Annie because she is maintenance free.

You are welcome to visit anytime you want to see a real piece of rural America.

Even though I had to miss “Chicken Patty” night at the hospital, we went home on Wednesday afternoon. Eli was able to do exceptionally well for half of the day without supplemental oxygen. He was breathing regular Fort Morgan air, or as the medical community says, “Room Air.” 

 By the end of our 5 day stay,  

• I was helping bridge the communication gap between the Respiratory Therapists and Nursing staff,
• learned how to operate the hospital beds using my toes, 
• learned to acquire chocolate pudding when it wasn’t on the menu,
• mastered how to use two different PulseOximeters,
• sucking out boogers at olymipic-speeds with a bulb syringe,  
• and other marketable skills.

I am so grateful that we are home and sleeping in our own beds. I don’t even care that our bed doesn’t recline or have a built in intercom.

Thanks for your prayers everyone.

My social life since Saturday morning has consisted of chatting it up with the night nurses and respiratory therapists. Eli is one of the lucky babies to be hospitalized with Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV.

I want to tell a quick story about the power of prayer. When Eli was officially admitted to the hospital- the ER nurses were ordered to get Eli set up with an IV. If any of you are in health care, you know that getting an IV into a dehydrated baby is torture. They tried twice- but no luck. The doctor decided to do without because he might not need any additional fluids and then the IV angst would be in vain. However, Eli was in for the long haul and was ordered to have an IV the next morning. The doc said that kiddos typically turn around after the IV is in place.

When Nate knew that they were going to try the IV again, he half-jokingly said, “We’ll start praying now.”  With every attempted IV, I prayed like crazy. There was a parade of ICU nurses, an anethetist, and finally obstetric nurses.  Eli was poked 12 times, with about 4 blowouts. (A blowout is when the vein literally bursts and makes subsequent blood draws and IVs impossible in the same vein.) The last group of obstetric nurses were amazing. The one who did the actual poking was a former neonatal ICU nurse. She got it in on the second attempt without any vein blowouts! Afterwards she told me that she prays before every IV and has an amazing success rate.

I know prayer isn’t a replacement for medical training, but it is an amazing supplement when we need extra help. I know that God looks out for us, even in the little things. Because after all, the little things are big things. Our little Eli is now out of the ICU and recovering slowly.

Please send your prayers in his direction and the direction of the nurses who are caring for him. Thank you from all of us.

Here are the long awaited photos of Elijah’s glorious cheeks. He has been working hard on these.

I told someone yesterday that I ‘re-fall in love’ with my boys several times a day.  This is a clever trick to ensure that they survive childhood. Like yesterday, when I was trying to determine what was the best way to get poop stains out of white carpet.

As you can see, they are absolutely perfect. Today when I woke up, I thought to myself,  ”YES! Another day with my boys.” After reading, seeing, and listening about the tragedy in Haiti, I count each day with my family as a giant blessing. Now for a moment on my little mama soapbox about being a Professional Mother.

I am unapologetic about wanting to stay home with my children. Some people feel sorry for me. Or they feel that I am wasting my college education. Or they think that I just don’t have the drive to do something ‘real’ with my degree. Or that my husband makes a six-figure salary. (Hooray for public school teachers!) However, I have made a very intentional decision to be with my children.

As I was cuddling with Eli today, I thought to myself, “Why would I pay someone to do this during the day- when it is something I truly enjoy?” I pictured myself paying someone to eat ice cream for me… or paying someone to go snowboarding for me… It seemed so counterintuitive.

I love soaking up my sweet boy’s sunshine first-hand. It fills me and I don’t want to miss a thing. (Cue Aerosmith…) At this very moment Phin is walking in a circle with a pot on his head shouting, “peanut butter! peanut butter!”

Leave a comment about something that ‘fills you.” Happy Valentine’s Day!

I have an internal alarm that goes off every morning around 9:30. I try to have myself and both boys dressed by this imaginary buzzer. It is tempting to leave Eli in his pajamas all day. It is even more tempting to stay in my own pajamas all day. However, I feel very strongly that leaving the house in sweat pants screams out to the world “I give up!” And that, my friends, is the exact opposite of how I am feeling these days. I feel fabulous. The energy of a new year has lifted my spirits and I have reached the point where I am comfortable juggling the demands of two children under 2.

Our joy has doubled now with Eli in the family. It is amazing to see how our “love rubber band” can just stretch and stretch. You don’t have to take love away from one child to give to the other. And then there’s the sweet sibling love. Phin is a remarkable big brother. He genuinely LOVES Eli. He wants to include him in all of our games and traditions (dancing in the kitchen, playing the piano, kisses goodnight, etc.) When Phin leaves a room, he never hesitates to say, “Bye, Mamma! Bye, Baby Lye-jah!” He seriously can’t go to bed at night without giving Eli a kiss on the head.

I feel so priviledged to be their primary caregiver and not a random daycare down the street. Every day is a lesson in patience, humor, true love, creativity, negotiation, humility. And then I get to do it all over again the next day. Being a mother is the best thing I have ever done and ever will do. Wow. I can’t believe I just typed that. Thank you Phin and Eli for being my favorite teachers.

I never expected to come home, kiss my wife, and hear her say, “Phinny and I were just playing some hammer Scrabble.”

Phin’s favorite things are (in order):

1. Mom
2. Hammers
3. Scissors
4. Knives
5. Getting his yogurt-covered hands all over my shirt and tie.

Yogurt hands are my least favorite.  There’s something just creepy about those live and active cultures chasing me down on ten wiggly digits.  Alli almost had some yogurt come out her nose when I told her my feelings on yogurt hands.  We used to read the Economist together and discuss pertinent issues of the day.  Now it’s yogurt hands.

This afternoon, it wasn’t Scrabble that received Phin’s hammer love.  It was the end table and wall in the living room.  I know that it doesn’t make sense that he should have access to hammers, but we’ve been doing a lot of home improvement stuff lately, and we’re not done, and I don’t put things away.  But even when I do, he gets the piano tuning hammer out of the bench or climbs to someplace where he can access something dangerous.  The terrible twos will be a joy with his need for potentially dangerous objects.

Today when Alli was cutting some fruit for a snack, he HAD to have the knife.  ”Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut!” With some guidance, he cut a bit of kiwi and we did a quick switch so he could play with a plastic knife for a while.

At library story/craft time (so Alli tells me) Phin was trying to cut his lips with the scissors.  Other moms looked on in horror.  Alli helped Phin cut the paper (at least a bit), and if she turned away for a moment, the scissors were back in his mouth.  ”No! Mine!” was the response to any reasonable intervention.

What I’m trying to say here is that I’m glad we live in a place where summer is only a couple of months away, and our kids will be able to go outside and play with rocks and sticks and bugs instead of our indoor hazards.  At least the outdoor ones fall into the “green” category so it’s more politically correct to let them experience that.  I’m also saying that parenting makes you a little less able to hold an intelligent conversation.  Or at least I’m going to use that excuse as far as it will take me.

Craigslist does have a section for Eastern Colorado, but when people really want to do business, they call the Swap Shop show on KFTM radio.  Some people also e-mail and fax their ads.   That’s how we got our lawn mower near the end of Summer.  Alli insisted that we share some of the more colorful Swap Shop offerings from the past week with you, our family and friends.  For those of you in rural areas, this will seem familiar.  For our big-city friends and family, this will give you a taste of the place we now call home.

(Text is direct copy-and-paste of entire ads from the KFTM website.  We just took out the phone numbers.)

• Johnny Stewart Deluxe cassette tape game caller with 25′ detachable speaker & 3 tapes – $50 obo; Casio cell phone with extra battery – $50 obo; Deer antlers & heads…
• Six laying hens to give away… ask for Holly
• Looking for farm kittens…
• Three miniature donkeys for sale; Two neutered, declawed cats to give away…ask for Linda
• Looking for an 84″ HD dirt bucket for an N.H. C-185 track skid-steer… ask for Mike
• Looking for a hog feeder…
• Looking for someone with a snow plow to remove snow in Brush…
• Rabbits; Looking for a place to hunt coyotes…
• Three ice cream buckets to give away; Clint Eastwood whiskey decanter – $30 obo; 6-gallon crock…
• Hydraulic hose making machine with attachments; 1985 Chevy S-10 racing pickup…

If you want to sell some sort of item we can’t live without, leave a comment about it.

Eli in his natural state:

Eli when Phin is hovering over him with a piano tuning hammer:

No children were harmed in the making of this post.  Every day is an adventure.

Phin is in a great stage where he enjoys organizing things.  That doesn’t mean that he organizes the way we would like; he just has a place for everything.  Right before Christmas, he opened the fridge, took out a cabbage, played with it like a ball for awhile, and then put it away on the toilet.

As you can see, our 1959 pink toilet is the stylistic centerpiece of our home. 

Phin also found two bottles of spray paint in Alli’s craft stuff and placed them in the fridge.

Quick Phinny facts:

• Favorite food: noodles (“noo-noos”)
• Favorite drink: Ovaltine, a.k.a. Magic Milk.
• Favorite book: Anything with trains or animals
• Favorite song: The Wise Man and the Foolish Man “Rock! Rock!”
• Favorite character: Perry the Platypus
• Favorite parent: Mama

Phin’s recent verbal higlight reel:

• “Neeze!  Ah-BOO!”  When Eli sneezes.
• “Miss Nanny!”  When we go to see Alli’s mom, it’s hard for Phin to leave.
• “Toot!  Hee hee hee!”
• “Orange Juice”
• “Baby awake!”  We get to hear this one a lot.  Sometimes Phin is the reason for the awakening.
• “Spinach”
• “Hooray!  Again?”  At Nanny’s concert.
• “Book, read.”
• “More juice, please.” “Gang koo.”
• “Uncle Chris”
• “Bite!”
• “Buddy” (his word for butter)

Phin loves feeding his brother.  He will also take Eli’s diapers to the trash and throw them away for us, saying “Away!”  How convenient!  Phin always kisses Eli and pats his head.  Then he grabs his little hand, brings it to his fist, and says, “Pound!”  (Alli’s preschool friend Brandon taught Phin to pound when he was visiting around Thanksgiving.)  Lately, Phin also holds Eli’s hand and kisses every finger, or holds his foot and kisses every toe.

It’s really nice that Phin is good to Eli.  We see some terrible twos on the horizon, but Phin is always good to his little brother.